All eyes in the western and rodeo world will be focused on Las Vegas this week as the Wrangler National Final Rodeo gets underway. The NFR is the Super Bowl/World Series for all the cowboys and cowgirls who compete in the professional Sport of Rodeo.
Thousands of fans wait in anticipation for this event all year long. The NFR is where the top 15 contestants in all the sanctioned rodeo events gather each December to see who will get to take home the coveted gold buckle and the title of 2022 World Champion.
One of the most exciting events is bull riding, which takes place out of the notorious yellow bucking chutes at the Thomas and Mack center in Las Vegas, Nev. Where there is bull riding there needs to be bull fighters to protect these top athletes as they compete in their event against the smartest rankest bulls.
These bulls have also been selected from the top of their field to come together with the bull riders to make a topnotch match-up. The bulls are as much of an athlete as the contestants, and to protect these cowboys, it takes some professionals to do this job.
Each year in October, the top bull riding contestants vote on who they want to entrust with their safety. Of all the bullfighters who work the rodeos all year, only the top three are selected for this honor. This year, Bryce Redo of Kenefick got the infamous call. A few weeks earlier Redo was selected as one of the top five NFR bull fighters of the year.
Redo started his bull fighting career just a few short years ago in 2016 when he decided to hang up his bull riding rope and tie on some cleats instead, and as he says, “The rest is history.”
In March 2022, he was selected to fight bulls at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. You may remember seeing him on the news as he was the bull fighter that the gate man released a bull on and he took quite a hooking.
On Dec 1, Redo officially become a part of rodeo history. He received his pro card and became eligible to fight bulls in the big league of PRCA just three years ago, and in those three short years he has risen to the top. He is the first Texan that has been selected to fight bulls at the NFR since 1997.
He received his Gold Buckle at a ceremony on Tues. Nov 29, and was accompanied by his wife Laci Reynolds Redo, who is nine months pregnant and due on Dec 15, and their 3-year-old daughter Haizlee Redo. They will be by his side all 10 days of the finals unless little Haddi decides to make her appearance in Vegas.
Redo is the subject of a 19-minute documentary film made by another Dayton resident, Sam Addington. To watch the video, go online to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkdA7Nri9gI
I’ll tell you what is bunch of bull, that’s when you pay your “Liberty” electric bill and get charged a 2% fee to use your debit or credit card. Don’t we pay enough? Liberty City Hall should be ashamed. The funny thing is that if you pay with a check “which creates more paper and expense” they don’t charge you anything. More signs of the times.