The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) bucks into San Antonio, Texas for the Ford Best in Texas Shootout for one night at the Alamodome. The top 45 bull riders in the world will take on the toughest bulls on this 20th stop on the elite Built Ford Tough Series Tour (BFTS) presented by Wrangler on Saturday, May 17, 2008 at 6:50 p.m. 

For as little as $10, PBR fans will not only see the toughest athletes on dirt, they will also experience more than two hours of edge-of-your-seat thrills and spills, rock & roll music, and pyrotechnics. Tickets can be purchased at the Alamodome Box Office, Ticketmaster.com, or by phone at 866 448 7849.

Fans will have their final opportunity to see the legendary Adriano Moraes (Cachoeira Paulista, SP, Brazil) who announced that the 2008 BFTS season will be his farewell tour. So far, in 2008, Moraes has five top 5 finishes, six top 10 finishes, and one event win in Rosemont, Illinois which marked the 29th win in his career, one shy of a PBR record. With over $3 million in winnings, he is PBR’s most decorated bull rider and the only three-time world champion.

Additionally, the one night event will feature riders such as Lonestar state cowboys Mike White (De Kalb, TX), 2004 PBR World Champion Mike Lee (Decatur, Texas) and 2007 PBR Daisy Rookie of the Year Clayton Williams (Carthage, TX); Brazilian standouts Guilherme Marchi (Leme, SP, Brazil) and Renato Nunes (Buritama, SP, BZ); and young guns J.B. Mauney (Mooresville, NC), Brian Canter (Randleman, NC), and L.J. Jenkins (Texico, NM).

The Ford Best in Texas Shootout will consist of two rounds of competition with the first round featuring the top 45 bull riders in the world randomly matched against the PBR’s rankest bulls. The riders with the top 15 scores from that round will advance to the Built Ford Tough Championship Round. During intermission, fans will be treated to the PBR draft where the top fifteen men will handpick their bulls in the final round. The bull rider who is in the lead will get to pick his bull first. Then, the remaining 14 contestants will pick their bulls with the rider in 15th position choosing last. In the end, the rider with the highest total score on two bulls will be declared the winner!

The San Antonio event is also one of the featured stops on the Bull Team Challenge Tour where twenty-two teams are competing for their share of the $1.1 million total tour purse and the $250,000 prize for the top team of 2008. In stop twelve of seventeen, the Bull Team Challenge will present $20,000 to the team whose total score is the highest for the weekend and $10,000 to the second-highest scoring team. The Challenge also gives fans a chance to own a bull for a season. For more information and the official rules on the PBR’s new Bull Team Challenge, please visit http://www.pbrnow.com/competition/BullTeams.

The PBR is the premiere bull riding organization in the world, boasting contestants from the United States, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, and Canada, Its events air weekly on VERSUS, NBC, and FOX and in recent years it has been tagged the ‘fastest growing sport in the country.’ For more information on the Ford Best in Texas Shootout, please visit www.pbrnow.com or call Katharine Sherrer at 719 242 2800 ext. 3372.

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About the PBR:

More than 100 million viewers tune in each year to the PBR on FOX, NBC, VERSUS and on a host of foreign networks across the globe. With approximately 400 hours of prime time programming annually PBR ranks among the most prolific sports on air, in addition to attracting over one and one half million live event attendees each year with its multi-tiered event structure which includes the marquee Built Ford Tough Series presented by Wrangler, the Copenhagen Bull Riding Challenger Tour,, the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Tour, and the Discovery Tour, designed specifically for entry level contestants. The PBR is headquartered in Pueblo, Colo., and has over 1,200 PBR bull riders compete in more than 300 PBR sanctioned competitions in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico.

Tom Teague — trucking magnate, cattleman and member of the PBR Board of Directors — will be hosting the 2008 Big Time Teague cattle sale tomorrow at the Steiner Ranch in Bastrop, Texas.

Approximately 140 head will be auctioned with the help of Joe Don Pogue and PBR arena announcer Randy Schmutz. Lots include great cattle from J.W. Hart, Alex Nacarrato, Dan and Linda Russell, and Bobby DelVecchio. Half-interests in three Futurity bulls and three Classic bulls are also being offered.

Cattle may be viewed on site from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., (a video preview is available on RFD-TV at 11:30 a.m.) with the sale commencing at noon. Buyers may preregister by calling 800-431-4452. Video is available, and buyers may bid, at www.superiorlivestock.com.

A trailer heading East after the event will haul at no charge.

“There’s great stock in this sale,” Teague said, “from embryo cows from the Page breeding program, to calves from Mudslinger, Big Bucks and Candyman.”

About the 2008 Big Time Teague Sale in Texas

Welcome to the 2008 Big Time Teague Sale in Texas. We are very excited about the cattle we have assembled here for this year’s sale. These cattle represent several top notch breeding programs from throughout the country including, Kish, Naccarato, Nelson, The Rafter 7r, XS Ranch, Berger, Page and others! We’ve exposed these great females to some of what we believe are going be the next “SUPER SIRES” including Red one, Squirt Gun, Real Deal, Night Life, Here’s Your Sign and Wild Side! To top it off we’ve included cattle exposed to or with calves at side by PBR World Champion Mossy Oak Mudslinger and the exciting Just A Dream!

We are also offering an opportunity today to purchase ½ interests in 6 outstanding ABBI eligible bulls, three 4 year olds and three 2 year olds. These bulls have been bucked and considered the best on the Teague Ranch. Someone is going to get to have a whole lot of fun by becoming co-owners of these great athletes. Teague Bucking Bulls is going to do all the work for you….feeding, hauling, and taking care of all the expenses. The new partners will pay entry fees and receive ½ of the ABBI winnings! New partners will also have the opportunity to breed these bulls!

In addition, every female owned and sold by Tom Teague in this sale today with a bull calf at side or born this year (2008) will be eligible for the Teague Bucking Bull ABBI Futurity Incentive! In 2010, we will host an ABBI Futurity, open to all entries, in conjunction with our sale. We will allow everyone to enter and see who has the best calf and earn big money. The highest placing Teague Bred Bull (from this sale) will earn a bonus of $20,000! WOW!

This year we are excited about having Joe Don Pogue as our auctioneer and Randy Schmutz will be on hand reading pedigrees, Looks West Productions has laid all of the ground work for a fantastic afternoon and the Steiner Ranch has rolled out the Red Carpet as our host once again this year.

New to the Big Time Teague Sale in Texas this year is the opportunity to watch the sale on RFD-TV and phone in your bids from anywhere in the country. If you can’t view the sale, you can bid on-line at www.superiorlivestock.com Register early to receive your buyer number and bid with confidence. We will accommodate you in every way possible by taking care of your cattle for up to 7 days after the sale and we can even help arrange transportation for your purchase.

Since the inception of the American Bucking Bull, Inc. the bucking bull breeding industry has grown tremendously. With ABBI Classic, and Futurity competitions paying out more money than ever and last year’s ABBI Classic Champion, Troubadour earning over $365,000 and the ABBI Futurity Champion, Deju Blue earning over $100,000 it’s no surprise the excitement continues to grow! Today is a great day in our industry and all the opportunities you are looking for are right here. Check out the schedule of events and don’t hesitate to call if you have any questions! Welcome to Steiner Ranches and the Big Time Teague Sale in Texas!

As the PBR looks forward to celebrating the 15th anniversary of the World Finals in Las Vegas, the sport of professional bull riding is at a crossroads of sorts when it comes to one important issue: helmets.

At this point in time, there's roughly a 50/50 split between cowboys who have grown up their entire lives having never worn a helmet – the likes of which include Justin McBride and Chris Shivers as well as Brazilians riders Adriano Moraes and Guilherme Marchi – as opposed to young guns like J.B. Mauney and Reese Cates, who have by and large worn a protective helmet their entire amateur and professional careers.

Then, of course, you have a tried and true old-school cowboy like Ross Coleman, who only recently switched to wearing a helmet after sustaining numerous head injuries.

“It’s a good idea if you can make it work,” said Cody Lambert, PBR livestock director and former bull rider, who developed the protective vests now worn by all bull riders. “Ross Coleman has made the transition, and he’s riding as well this year as he ever has, and he made the transition because of head injuries.”

In recent weeks you can look to two or three specific wrecks as examples of how a helmet may have made a difference.

The first example involved two-time World Champion Chris Shivers during the short go of the Cooper Tires Invitational in Chicago. Shivers was still in the bucking chute when his bull, Cowboy, pulled him head-first into the slide gate and slammed the left side of face off of the steel railing.

As vicious as the accident was - he broke his left cheekbone and eye socket - the helmetless Shivers never lost consciousness.

“If he had a helmet on that wouldn’t have happened,” Austin Meier said. “That’s not to say he wouldn’t have had a bad headache.”

Meier is actually the second of two recent examples.

The Oklahoma Sooner was injured during the championship round of the Des Moines Classic the week after Shivers' accident. Meier was thrown to the ground by Lil’ Slim and stepped on several times.

In the moments following the wreck, he lay motionless in the middle of the arena. It was only the second time in four years that he had been knocked out and, fortunately, the wreck looked far more violent then it turned out to be.

Meier said, “for me, it’s important to me to do everything I can to last as long as I can riding bulls.

“Now it’s so much more business, so I can put a helmet on and instead of getting whacked in the head and out for a month, I can come back (this) week (in San Antonio) and try to win me $24,000 to $100,000.”

Currently 17 of the Top 45 professional bull riders in the world wear a helmet, as do three others who regularly compete on the Built Ford Tough Series. There are two other riders – Kasey Hayes and Ednei Caminhas – who still wear hats instead of helmets, but also wear a protective facemask.

A few more riders have at least considered wearing a helmet, but for various reasons have elected to stick with the traditional cowboy hat.

One of those riders is Mike White, who recently missed two events having sustained multiple concussions this season. White came back after missing Omaha and Billings, but only because he had fallen out of the Top 10 in the world standings.

While Lambert firmly believes White came back a month too soon, he stopped short of dictating whether or not White or any other rider should be made to wear a helmet.

“It’s been so long since I’ve ridden, and I try to put myself in that position, and I just can’t do it,” Lambert said. “I can’t think of what it would feel like because I don’t know.”

“I’m sure if you had been riding bulls for as long as Mike White has,” added Meier, “for him to all of a sudden say one day, ‘I’m going to put a helmet on,’ it’s going to be a lot different for him.”

There was a time early in Meier’s career when he didn’t wear a helmet. The transition was made easier for the now 21-year-old cowboy because as a young boy he was a catcher when he played baseball. He also played high school football.

Nevertheless, the cowboy way has always been to pull your hat down, take a deep breath and nod.

With each passing year and with each new class of rookies, more and more riders are bound to be wearing helmets.

And while Meier doesn’t think helmets would ever become a mandatory requirement at the PBR level of competition, he does “wish there were more guys that wanted to wear helmets.”

“If I learned to ride with a helmet,” added Lambert, who thinks riders as a whole have been cooler to the idea of helmets than they were when he developed the protective vest, “I’d think it was great and I’d feel comfortable with it.”

—by Keith Ryan Cartwright

L.J. Jenkins knows what it’s like to win.

In 2006, he took home the PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals event title and has quickly established himself as a fast-rising superstar of the PBR.

Unfortunately, until this season, he’s struggled with staying healthy. That’s been the biggest difference of 2008, and after 19 events he’s in fifth place.

Tomorrow night, Jenkins will be a guest on PBR Prime Time at 9 p.m. EST. Fans cannot only listen in to the show – www.pbrnow.com/radio/ – but they can also call in live and talk with Jenkins.

Last week he spoke with www.pbrnow.com and had this to say:

What are your thoughts on the season you’re having to this point?

It’s the best season I’ve had. I’ve been healthy and done good and stayed pretty consistent. Every year I’ve been out half the year because I’ve either gotten hurt or something has went on. This is the first year I’ve been able to be at every event. … I guess I haven’t been landing wrong or getting stepped on.

Right now you’re in fifth place and you’re in the midst of your most consistent season to date, so what’s it going to take to catch Guilherme Marchi?

I don’t know if anybody can catch him. He’s going have to start bucking off or – we don’t want this – but he’s almost going to have to get hurt for us to catch him. I think if we are going to catch him we better start riding about 90 percent of our bulls from here on out.

But the way the World Finals are structured, and as well as you’ve done there, you know anything can happen, so it could very well make for an exciting time in Las Vegas.

Oh, yeah, I think Mike Lee is the guy who’s won the most points in Vegas—he won like 4,600. Guilherme is like 3,500 ahead of all of us, so there we go again. He’s going to have to start bucking off and we’re going to have to gain some points before we even go into Vegas.

The advantage you have over most other riders would be your vast knowledge of bulls. Talk about that—where and when did that start?

I think it’s been like that all my life. I watch and just pay attention. Being a bull raiser or having my own cattle, I like to watch the bulls because that’ll help me later to see if I want to breed to that bull or not.

How did you initially get into breeding?

I didn’t grow up around it or anything. I started out as a little hobby. I had a couple bulls and whenever you have one or two you always want to get more. Then I decided I wanted to start buying cows and now I’m up to about 25 head of cows and 10 bulls. It’s just kind of grown from me needing to buy a couple practice bulls to me wanting to raise everything.

Do foresee that as a future? You’re still young, but is breeding and perhaps becoming a stock contractor a way for you to be part of the PBR for a long time to come?

Yeah, that’s kind of my goal. While I’m healthy and riding and making money now is when I’m going to start building my herd, so that whenever I retire or get hurt bad enough to where I can’t ride no more, I can sit out there and look at 100 head and calves every year. If they’re not good enough to go to the PBR, you can sell them to somebody for $1,500 a piece - that’s a pretty good income. If you have 100 calves at $1,500 a piece you’re not doing too bad over the year. … I’ve already had some bulls that I took to a Challenger event back when I was hurt last year. I was hurt and I only had three at the time, but I’ve had as much as six that I would take. It’s just something that’ll eventually happen.

Nothing will ever replace being a rider, but how does that excitement compare to taking to taking three to six bulls to an event and bucking them?

It’s exciting. For one, I think it’s a little more nerve-wracking because I don’t have any control over how they can perform, but I have all the control over how good I do. So it’s kind of nervous, but it’s a really good feeling whenever you can take six head of bulls and you buck everybody off or they’re in the mid to high 80s.

If you can control how good you can be, then what is your prediction for how the rest of the season going to unfold for you?

I’m just going to keep going and try not to pay attention to the point standings, but being that I got the mom that checks it every hour to make sure they give me a point or didn’t give somebody else an extra point, you know, she always calls me to make sure I know how everything is going. I’m just going try to ride all of my bulls and stay consistent and whatever happens at the end happens. I really don’t have any control over how Guilherme does or any of that. I just want to go into the Finals where by the end of it I’m in the Top 3.