The term “Western sports” refers to events like roping, steer wrestling, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding — some of the most dangerous forms of competition. Applying his expertise in neurology and sports medicine to care for these athletes over the last several years, Dr. Anthony Alessi has developed a unique perspective on this world. Professional bull riders have been flying in from other parts of the Americas to see him at UConn Health since 2018, when the first two arrived, concerned they’d leave with doctor’s orders to stop competing. In this solo episode, he shares his insight on the dynamic of the Western sports culture, why many of them lie to him, and what became of those first two bull riders who came in for neurological evaluations.
Listen now:
Submit questions for “Healthy Rounds” to healthyrounds@uchc.edu.
Support comes from UConn Health Orthopedics and Sports Medicine and Coverys.
Transcript
Dr. Alessi: Welcome to the Healthy Rounds Podcast, where we provide you with up-to-date and timely medical information from national and international leaders in their fields. This podcast is brought to you by UConn Health. with support from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and a grant from Coverys. It is not designed to direct your personal healthcare, which should only be done by your physician.
I’m your host, Dr. Anthony Alessi, and it’s great to be with you as always on this podcast. Today’s going to be a little bit different. I’m going to be talking about a program that I’m involved with here at the University of Connecticut, and it involves Western sports. Now, Western sports present a unique challenge for sports medicine physicians, and we’re going to talk about that and my work with this outstanding group of athletes.
In the podcast, we’re going to define what Western sports are, talk a little bit about the historical background and the rules of Western sports, my involvement, as well as the involvement of UConn Health. So let’s get started.
When we talk about Western sports, we’re talking about two different types of events. There are timed events, such as tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling. So basically, your success is based on the amount of time it takes you to do something. Then there’s what we call “rough stock” events. Now, the rough stock events are events that focus on riding and breaking animals, and basically we’re talking about bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding. And we spend, most of our discussion today will be centered around bull riding.
A little bit about the history: The Western sports really came to light in about the 16th century as a contest back in what was old Mexico, and it was a variant of bullfighting. So when we think of bull riding, it was a variant of bullfighting, and basically the idea was to stay on the back of the bull. It was modeled after the matadors and bullfighting itself.
In 1992, 20 professional bull riders got together and formed what’s now known as PBR; it’s basically a professional bull riders tour. Bull riding was always the last event in a rodeo, and it was one that people felt was the single most exciting event. So they decided to start their own system, their own company. And because bull riding is really among the single most dangerous sporting activities in the modern era — and that’s been documented throughout the literature; it’s really an extreme sport — and people especially now are drawn to these extreme sports.
So in bull riding, the rules are that the rider has to stay on the bull for a period of eight seconds. Doesn’t sound like it’s very long, but you’d be surprised when you actually watch an event. It begins when the bull’s shoulders or their hind parts break the plane of the chute. That’s when the clock starts, and it ends when the rider either falls off, or his hand comes loose from the bull, or he touches the bull with what we call his free arm, the arm that’s not strapped onto the bull itself. And the rider then gets assigned points. The points are based on a 100-point scale. Fifty points are attributed to the bull’s performance and 50 points to the rider’s performance.
There’s always been a lot of talk about cruelty to the bulls, and I can tell you from personal experience that the bulls are treated like VIPs. The reason is, stock contractors make their money from the bulls. The bulls are highly paid, or at least the contractors are paid. So it really would be a mess for them from a financial standpoint to harm or be cruel to the bulls. So these bulls are bred and treated quite well.
A lot of the bull riders now are international, mainly from Brazil. So I’d say about half of the bull riders are from Brazil, many from Western Canada, and we’ve had the pleasure of working with all of them over the years. The number of participants now, there are about 1,200 professional bull riders. The typical bull rider is an average age of 20 years old, average height of 5 feet, 7 inches, and weight of 139 pounds. So physically, they are smaller and lighter athletes. And again, I use the term “athlete.”
Let me digress a little bit. For many years, they were treated much like performers, that they are, like all athletes, but they were not treated like athletes. So the traditions that we extend to other athletes in organized sports were not really extended to Western sports athletes. In fact, it’s only the PBR tour that has their own athletic trainers and physician at every event, and really only at the highest level. There are physicians at many other events, especially with the PRCA, but not to the degree of PBR. Riders usually start riding steers at age 7, so they start very young. Before age 7, they’re riding calves and sheep.
And it’s also important to note that professional bull riders and Western sports athletes fit into the category of “self-employed athletes.” The difference being, when we think of baseball, football, basketball, these are employed athletes, right? They come under the employment of a team. They have benefits. If they’re injured, they still get paid. Self-employed athletes are somewhat different. When we think of those athletes, we think of boxers and MMA athletes, combat sports athletes, Western sports athletes, golfers, same thing. They’re self-employed. Bowlers, again, self-employed athletes. I often say that employed athletes lie to me half the time to tell me that they’re ready to go back to the event. But self-employed athletes clearly lie to me all the time because they’re in a situation where it’s no play, no pay. So it’s important to keep that in mind as a physician treating these folks.
Now, the program at the University of Connecticut started in 2018, and it was done in conjunction with a group called the Western Sports Foundation. This is a foundation set up to provide assistance to these self-employed athletes when they are injured to help them with whatever, car payments, house payments, and whatever that can be done in a charitable way. The people who support it are an interesting group. These are people who believe strongly in trying to preserve the Western culture, and it’s a different culture. As I’ve gotten to know people involved in this, it is a totally different culture. And for someone like myself, born and raised in the Bronx, it is a very different culture than I’m used to. And over the years, I’ve come to really appreciate these people and their dedication to this Western culture. So we started this program in 2018, and it was following the death of a professional bull rider named Ty Pozzebon.
To briefly summarize, I saw Ty Pozzebon in 2015 as a patient and advised him not to ride in professional bull riding anymore because of damage to his brain. Unfortunately, he persisted and rode at other levels other than PBR for a period of time. Two years later, at the young age of 25, he sadly took his own life, and he was subsequently found to have CTE As a result, PBR felt that they were somewhat responsible for the health of their athletes. And by this time, the original 20 athletes who started it had sold this to Endeavor at the time, which is a big sports management company. So they felt it was necessary to have a way of evaluating athletes before they get on a bull and to make sure their brains were healthy. And that’s where I came in, in working with them and developed this program at UConn Health.
Over the years, we’ve seen about 35 professional athletes who are involved in PBR, and some even at the amateur level. What was interesting was, the first two participants that came to us in 2018 came with the idea that they were being sent, and as a neurologist, I was going to end their career. What we found with the testing we did was one of them really had a learning disability that needed to be treated, and the other had migraine headaches. So they had conditions that had nothing to do with getting hit in the head or their performance. What was more interesting was that when we corrected their problem and treated them, they both rose to being among the top 10 bull riders in the world. So it was interesting because suddenly our program developed into a program about brain health and how we can help athletes improve their performance in Western sports, and that has led to what has been a great relationship.
Our process is basically doing a detailed neurologic examination, MRIs of the brain, neuropsychometric testing, and in many cases, having them consult with a physical therapist. We do this over a period of three days, so they are flown out here thanks to Western Sports Foundation, and all their expenses are paid for, including our fees at UConn Health. And what it has developed into is kind of an international program for these athletes, including not just bull riders, but ropers, bareback riders, barrel racers. And what our goal has been is to determine whether it’s safe for the athlete to continue riding or treat their problem as we did with these first two athletes in terms of whether it be with physical therapy, medication, hooking them up with counseling, since many have developed various mental disorders and depression, especially after retiring from the sport. We also talk a lot about vocational endeavors after they’re done bull riding. So it’s become a very individualized program based on the goals.
In closing, this program has become one of the unique programs that really distinguish UConn Health nationally. And surprisingly, one of the purposes of this podcast is, and will be, to raise awareness in the community and with our colleagues about unique programs that we have developed here at UConn Health in order to assist not just athletes, but all of our citizens on a national level and a local level to better health.
With that, as always, I thank you for your time today. Many thanks to our executive producer, Jennifer Walker. Chris DeFrancesco is the studio producer who put this together.
If you have any questions about future programs, you can reach out to me at healthyrounds@uchc.edu. As always, it’s been great chatting with you and doing this podcast.
Until next time, this is Dr. Anthony Alessi. Please stay healthy
