Permission given to me to forward/copy/paste/ email any articles from this Blog from Josh Peters.
www.friedtwinkies.com/blog/It’s time for PBR to fix
knotty problem with rule
March 9th, 2006 by Josh Peter
When it comes to the knots controversy, Jody Newberry isn’t the problem.
JimBob Custer isn’t the problem either.
The problem is the way the rule is enforced.
With the PBR board of directors set to meet this weekend in Kansas City, it’s time for the board to fix the problem. Helpful guy that I am, here’s the solution:
Allow judges to call the infraction only before they start the eight-second clock. Once the ride officially begins, the judges’ authority to make the call officially ends.
With the controversy simmering since Newberry got DQ’d at the World Finals when he was called for “catching the knots,’’ critics have seized on the language of the rule, which prohibits riders from “intentionally leaving chute with spurs hooked or lodged in the bull rope.’’ Striking the word “intentionally’’ would be a good start, because it would allow judges to call the infraction and enforce the rule without asking them to determine the rider’s intent. Additionally, it would keep riders like Newberry from feeling obligated to defend their integrity when they’re called for the infraction.
But that change alone is like treating a broken arm with a band-aid. The real issue is how the rule is being enforced.
Once a rider is outside of the chute, the rules permit him to catch his spurs on the loops or any other portion of the rope. Yet at the 2005 World Finals, Cody Lambert let the clock run for five seconds before signaling thumb’s down, a sign that he’d disqualified Newberry on the sixth-round ride. And Sunday, Custer let the clock run for three seconds before indicating he’d disqualified Newberry.
Perhaps Lambert and Custer, wanting to be certain they were making the right call, watched Newberry’s spurs outside of the chute – at which time such observation should be irrelevant and even counterproductive, considering a rider is allowed to lodge his spurs into the rope after exiting the chute.
Or perhaps Lambert and Custer inadvertently let the clock run. That’s still unacceptable considering judges routinely stop the clock in less than two seconds and are required to stop the clock as soon as the ride officially ends. Regardless of the reason, that judges start the clock before calling the infraction reinforces the notion that the rule is being improperly enforced.
So when the PBR board of directors meet Saturday in Kansas City, here’s what they need to do: eliminate the word “intentionally’’ from the rule and allow the infraction to be called only before the eight-second clock starts. That, in turn, will force the judges to act decisively and base the call on what is seen before the rider leaves the chute – which is the only time the infraction can occur.
This isn’t about bashing the judges, and this isn’t about bashing the PBR. This is about addressing a poorly written rule that puts judges in an unfair position, subjects riders to unfair scrutiny and, as the controversy rages, erodes the PBR’s credibility.
When the issue comes up for discussion Saturday, that credibility will be in the hands of its board of directors. How the board acts, or fails to act, will determine whether those hands can be trusted.
