Well, here it is January and things are pretty slow in Formula One. The season ended more than two months ago, and the start of next season is still a couple months away. Of course, the teams are busy working on their new cars, doing some preliminary testing, reconstituting team personnel, and, in some cases, getting their drivers under contract. For the most part, however, this "off-season" has been singularly uneventful thus far.
Do F1 fans have lives outside of racing? Most, of course, do. Indeed, most fans probably follow some other sport, or perhaps several other sports, quite closely. And, depending on where we are, our "off-season" interests vary considerably. For example, most Americans idle away their time watching football (not to be confused with soccer) and basketball. Canadians try keeping warm watching hockey, while Europeans are charting skiing and skating.
For fans who follow F1 exclusively, and for other one-sport fans, the off-season can be long and grueling. Americans who follow baseball at the expense of all other sports, know, for example, that October to April is a very long time. Some sports, however, have very short off-seasons, and fans go wanting only briefly. Here I consider myself fortunate. In addition to Formula One, I follow a sport most international motorsports fans never EVEN, or probably ever want to, think about--rodeo.
Good, you're still with me. I suspect several readers saw "rodeo" and immediately hit their Alt Exit buttons. Rodeo may seem like a strange sport to some people, but it isn't as strange as some others, and it has some similarities to (as well as some great differences from) F1 that merit pondering. If I prove to be wrong in convincing you of this, at least I will have killed a couple of minutes in your otherwise boring off-season.
The professional rodeo season ended on 12 December with the tenth and final go-round of the National Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada. Next season begins in my home town, Fort Worth, Texas, 19 January; a five week off-season. Professional rodeo cowboys work eleven months each year; eleven very long and hard months. Major rodeos span two weeks and involve one go-round per event each day. Most participants compete in two or three events. A few days are spent between rodeos traveling from one venue to the next. Travel is always by car or truck, with cowboys sharing driving and motel rooms. It isn't a very glamorous lifestyle. Unlike F1 drivers, cowboys don't fly in from exotic resorts, work for a few days, and then fly home or elsewhere to spend a leisurely ten days before repeating the routine.
Rodeo also doesn't pay as well either. We all know that Michael Schumacher gets $25 million, and that a few other drivers make multiple millions each year. Not in their wildest dreams could a rodeo cowboy earn so much. For example, this year's bull riding champion Jerome Davis earned $135,280, and bareback bronc champion Marvin Garrett earned $156,733. In addition to being paltry, these earnings figures are approximately double what they were coming into the final event of the season. The 15th ranked cowboy in each discipline did well to earn $50,000 in 1995. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this isn't enough money to break even, much less get ahead. You couldn't buy a one-off in a Minardi for a champion's annual earnings!
How do rodeo cowboys cover their expenses, much less make a living? Simple. Not unlike F1 teams and drivers, professional rodeo cowboys rely on corporate sponsorship. That's right, folks, the shit-kickers do the very same thing as the quiche-eaters. Although cowboys don't have as many sponsorship patches on their clothes as can be found on any driving suit, there is always at least one. Patches advertising Resistol hats, Justin boots, Tony Lama boots, Wrangler jeans and shirts, and Dodge trucks are common sights on cowboys' chests, backs, sleeves and chaps. Furthermore, the bigger the star, the bigger the sponsorship logo. The Hardee's (an American hamburger chain) patches on the shirt of Tuff Hedeman (one of the all-time great bull riders) are so large that there may well not be a shirt holding them together. Every time I see the guy I want to order lunch!
In addition to their dependence on sponsorship there is at least one other major similarity between rodeo and racing, and cowboys and drivers--danger. Every driver expects to crash and get hurt, sometimes seriously. Right, Mika? Every cowboy gets "throwed." Indeed, during the National Finals no cowboy rode all ten go-rounds without eating some dirt, and there were several cracked ribs, sprained wrists, pulled muscles, lacerations, contusions, and concussions. But no one was killed...at least this year.
This past year was a relatively safe one in both rodeo and F1. There were no fatalities. But, there easily could have been, as there were in 1994. Everyone in the world knows that we lost Ayrton Senna last year. Far fewer people heard of Brent Thurman who was killed at last year's National Finals Rodeo. Brent was a 23-year old cowboy who not only got throwed by one of the rankest bulls in the history of rodeo, but he had the misfortune of having the bull step on and crush the base of his skull.. I never had the pleasure of meeting Senna, but I did know Brent. I had the opportunity to chat with him on occassion when he would visit his mother who lived across the street from me. Why did he rodeo when the risks outweighed the monetary gains? For the same reasons why drivers race cars.
Regardless of what the financial gains might be (and they are relative--cowboys think $50,000 is a lot of money!), athletes participate because of their competitive nature and the love of their sport. Would Schmacher drive a Ferrari for less than $25 million a year? Would he drive a Forti for $50 million a year? Probably not, in both cases. However, the answer would have been different four years ago. I don't know what Eddie Jordan paid him to drive in Belgium in 1991, but I bet it wasn't much. Schumacher may have even paid for that ride. Why did he accept that Jordan seat? Because he likes cars and going fast. He's a competitor. Some people like bulls and horses and going for the wildest ride possible. Cowboys nearly all come from humble and less-advantaged American backgrounds (although there are some Australians and Brazilians) whereas F1 drivers are typically from European families of means. They may be different, but their competitiveness makes them quite alike.