Call to action for the 'original extreme sport'

Hello to everyone in the cowboy nation,

I'm checking back in with you. I'm here at the ranch in Texas and we've had a great spring. Everything's going great with the cattle. I have all the cows and calves vaccinated and all worked this last week, and now I've just been helping the neighbors with getting their spring branding done.

Jewel and I are still getting caught up with everything else after being in California for so long. We're actually going to be going on vacation in a couple of weeks.

I think all of the guys on the Built Ford Tough Series are enjoying a little break to heal up, and some are enjoying the chance to go to some Challenger events to make up some ground there.

I mentioned on a previous blog that I have a few things in the works as far as the ESPYS go and them not considering cowboys or bull riders. Well, the first thing that I'm doing is that June 27 I'll be going to Pittsburgh for an event with all the sports editors from the Associated Press.

They're going to give us 15 minutes to give a presentation about the PBR.

Ty Murray's Dancing Check it out

It's a really good opportunity because it allows me to get face-to-face with these people and try to help them understand more about our sport. Again, sometimes our sport is hard for people to relate to because they've never done it or tried it, so they have some ignorance about it.

But this is where we can give a great presentation, show some video and talk about it directly to them and let them see they're missing the boat. It's just another one of those steps we have to take to try and influence people to see our sport as they would any other professional sport.

The thing I would like for you guys to do is send some letters and emails to ESPN. I put together a list of email addresses for all the ESPN radio programs:

Mike Greeny and Mike Golic at mikeandmike@espnradio.com, Colin Cowherd at theherd@espnradio.com, Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt at tiricoandvanpelt@espnradio.com, Doug Gottlieb at douggottlieb@espnradio.com, Brian Kinny at bk@espnradio.com, Bob Valvano at vshow@espnradio.com, John Seibel at gamenight@espnradio.com, Jason Smith at allnight@espnradio.com, and then John Kincade at jkshow@espnradio.com.

We need for all of you to write to these radio hosts and their producers, so that they know how many of us want to hear them talk about the PBR when they're on the air.

Likewise, you can also log onto www.sportscenter.com and leave messages for those hosts as well. Getting these shows to acknowledge us and talk about us is the first step in getting the recognition we deserve when it comes to the ESPYS.

Just give them your thoughts and opinions on what makes a cowboy such a great athlete.

I mean, when you're talking about the sport of rodeo and bull riding, it's been around for 140 years; that's right, the first organized rodeo took place 140 years ago in Colorado.

And if you want to talk about the popularity of extreme sports, well, this is definitely the original extreme sport.

It just bums me out when you look at cowboys, not only how good they have to be physically, but also mentally — and we're talking about a sport that is so scary to learn how to do this craft at the highest level as an athlete — and to not have them acknowledged is sad.

When I was growing up, I played football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, gymnastics and other sports that most kids play, but I never found anything that came close to challenging me the way this sport did, like I mentioned, both physically and mentally.

That's really what hooked me on it.

I think some letters will help and that's what we can start with and I'm going to give it my best shot when I speak in front of the Associated Press. Hopefully we can educate them and get them to check into our sport too.

So that's your mission for now, and I'm open for any ideas you guys might have, but just remember we're in this together.

Most dangerous sport?

I want to thank everyone who sent letters off and I was also curious to know if any of you got responses back and, if so, what were they like? Were they just canned responses or did anybody get a decent reply back?

The thing I have to continually work at is the ignorance that people have for our sport.

For example, "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" just did a segment on the PBR. They did it on the topic of whether or not helmets should be mandatory and all that's fine — I think that's an interesting topic for viewers to be able to talk about and debate — but I was amazed that with the amount of access we gave them into the PBR they don't even consider us a sport.

They're just looking at it like, "Why would any idiot do this?"

I was blown away when the piece came out and it's funny because there are a lot of other dangerous sports. NASCAR is very dangerous and so, too, is downhill speed skiing. For that matter, you can even look at getting hit with a 95 mph pitch in baseball or catching a pass over the middle of the field in the NFL as being dangerous, especially when you hear Ray Lewis coming at you.

Boxing, ultimate fighting, the extreme sports — the things they're doing on snowboards and skateboards — and off-road racing or motocross and there are a lot of other sports I can think of that are dangerous, but they seem to understand those are sports and it's funny that out sport gets dismissed as, "Why would idiots to this?"

When I did "Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge" on CMT, that was the whole purpose behind doing that show. We took nine people from nine different walks of life and tried to show America what the process of learning to ride a bull would be for all these different people.

They were all so different that people at home could relate to somebody on the show and see what goes into it and the amount of technique that goes into it — both physically and mentally — because it is so dangerous.

It just amazes me that on a show called "Real Sports" they can't even recognize that we're a real sport.

PBR's Biggest Wrecks Check it out

I don't know how many of you got to see the piece, but it makes you throw your hands in the air when we're a sport that's traveling all over the country, selling out arenas, have a huge television package and, worldwide, seen by a half billion people, and you still have these guys who don't even take the time to try to see the amount of athleticism that goes into our sport.

Those sorts of things can be disheartening, but we need to try and keep remembering to get more exposure, more recognition and have more people come to see what we do so we can continue to build this thing brick by brick.

The PBR has several projects in the works. They're not things that are done overnight, but we have different television and movie opportunities that we're pursuing that will help expose our sport to new audiences.

I'm interested in reading any responses you guys might have gotten from your emails and letters or suggestions that you guys may have in continuing to try and educate and inform people about what a great sport we have.

In the meantime, I want to hear from you as to what makes bull riders elite athletes as well as what makes the PBR such a great sport. I'll put together a three-man committee to read the responses and the one they select will win a buckle.

Talk to you next week.

To read Ty's previous blogs, click here: 'It was America who decided'

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