Teammates help Dirteater go out on top after final bull ride
It’s called the Professional Bull Riders Team Series, which is how most in attendance at T-Mobile Arena will remember Sunday’s inaugural championship game between the Nashville Stampede and Arizona Ridge Riders.
But Ryan Dirteater will mostly recall it as a pretty cool thing to do between retirements.
“I came out of retirement to do this and I’m done (again) — I’m ending on this,” he said after sparking Nashville to the title. “That was the game plan from the beginning.”
Dirteater — a Native American from Oklahoma with the quintessential name for a pro bull rider — spent 18 seasons on tour without winning a world title. But when the Team Series debuted, it offered a chance at redemption. He was one of three Stampeders who rode their bulls in the finals, edging the Arizona quintet that rode two.
“I’d never been on that bull before,” Dirteater said after staying aboard Hundred Bad Days to provide him with one final great day. “But if I did my job, I knew the rest of the guys would do theirs.”
After Joao Lucas and Cladson Rodolfo were bucked off, Dirteater and former PBR champions Silvano Alves and Kaique Pacheco of Brazil stayed aboard for the required eight seconds, touching off a champagne-fueled celebration that would have done baseball’s Houston Astros proud.
“I talked to my wife, talked to my family, and they said if you’re going to do it, you gotta give it 100 percent and take it seriously,” said Dirteater, who will split $1.5 million with his teammates after Nashville went 4-0 in Las Vegas. “So I did, and now I’m here.”
It also was a very happy return for Justin McBride, the Nashville coach who won two PBR world titles at the Thomas & Mack Center and once competed for UNLV’s rodeo team.
“The two I won at the Thomas & Mack, I wouldn’t trade for anything — that was a great time in my life,” said McBride, who shouted encouragement to his team through a rolled-up day sheet. He evoked images of John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, who did the same to his players with a game program.
“This is different for different reasons,” he said. “When you’re trying to bring a group together to win something, it’s special when it happens.”
Hearing the crowd roar after the dramatic 5-on-5 matchups was confirmation that team bull riding probably is here to stay, McBride said.
“I loved it from Day One,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity and the honor to coach the Global Cup teams for Team USA, and I knew how special the team concept was.
“When our CEO Sean Gleason said we’re going to do this, I couldn’t wait.”
Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.