In any professional sport there are some major ingredients that will make that sport prosper. First and foremost the sport has to be interesting to a large number of people. No matter how hard you try, playing chess will not raise the excitement level for most people beyond a collective yawn. Second you have to have the athletes. The men or women that have sacrificed time and effort to become the best at that sport. Third you have to have a sport that with minimal effort the general public can understand and watch the sport, without having to have a master’s degree in sports psychology. Lastly, the people that are in charge of making sure the rules are followed, the judges, referees and umpires, have to be competent, well trained and keep human errors to a minimum. If people that are watching the sport, the fans, perceive the judge to be bias, incompetent, or just simply making too many mistakes, the integrity of the entire sport will be called into question.I have been a PBR fan for several years. Over a year ago I left my first comment on the PBR comment section, on the main PBR website. There were several events that took place and there were obvious judging errors. I have been a sports fan since I was a kid, and understand that judging can determine who wins and who loses. For someone to win, someone else loses. This is a simple concept for sure, but a concept that some forget and think that these riders are pulling for someone else as hard as they are for themselves. From the very first comment that I ferviously banged out on computer to this last event, I have talked about the poor judging. Over the last year, it seems to have gotten worse. There have been too many missed calls, too many missed slaps, too many calls that are not in the rule book, but a judge threw a reride flag anyway. The scoring has been all over the map and consistent judging is paramount to the integrity of the sport. In my opinion, there has been calls that certain riders get and others don’t. If fans believe a judge is showing favortism to certain riders this will/does/has created a backlash to the PBR, the judges and the riders that fans believe are the benefactor of those calls.
This last weekend the event in Greenville brought to a head problems that have been festering for quite sometime. In case you have been under a rook or under snowdrifts in the Artic, there was some controversy. I know for those that have been watching the events for the last year, that’s a shocker. During the long go, two major events happen. Silvano Alves was called for touching himself or the bull. After the ride was reviewed, the replays were inconclusive. However, since the judge said he committed a foul, the reply had to show that he didn’t for the call to be overturned. Therefore, no score for Silvano. One of the problems with this call is that the judge on the opposite side of the ride called the slap. From his vantage point, it would have been nearly impossible to call the foul with 100% certainty. Don’t call the foul until the ride is over, then call for a review. If the foul is inconclusive, then the rider still keeps the score.
The second controversy was that Valdiron de Oliveira was disqualified for taking too long in the chutes. He did seem to be taking too long, however, I have seen other riders taking the same or more time and not get disqualified. If you are going to DQ riders for taking too much time, you better make sure you do it across the board, otherwise it looks like you have something against that rider and you will let others slide by, based on the same rules.
Then we have the biggest controversy of the night, in the 10 extra rides for the Final Five Chase. Ryan McConnel came out of the chutes and within the first few jumps, his free hand came across his body in front of him and went down and he touched the bull. Ryan continued the ride and got a score. At this time Renato Nunes went to a judge and asked him if he saw Ryan touch the bull. The judge said no and Renato made a split second decision that may change the sport of bull riding and the PBR as we know it. Renato went over to the challenge button and with a quick jab, he pushed the challenge button. A challenge of another rider's ride has never been done in the PBR. Due to the fact that a blind man in a dark room with blinders on could have seen that Ryan slapped the bull, the review determined that Ryan did foul and his score was taken off the board.
Renato said that he pushed the button because the judges have been inconsistent with their calls and they totally missed Ryan's slap, yet they saw Silvano’s from a bad vantage point and it being inconclusive. As Ty Murry said, everybody in the building saw it, except the four judges. Simply put, Renato did the right thing. Some have said that to challenge the ride of another rider is not living up to the “cowboy code”. We are not talking about being on the wide open range and coming home to a log cabin. We are talking about bull riding, which has grow to become one of the fastest growing sports in the US. The key word in that sentence was - sports. The cowboy code, to me, is to do the right thing and Renato brought to the attention of the PBR and fans that they, as the athletes in the sports, no longer trust the judges to make the right calls. If the athlete does not believe in the quality of the judging, how can anyone expect the fans to believe in it? When you start losing the fans belief in the fairness of the calls, you lose fans and the sport starts to implode.
There were other calls that were missed during this event and scores that seem to be out of line between the judges. When a ride is scored, how can there be 3 to 4 point differences between the highest scoring judge and the lowest scoring? Are they looking at the same ride? Also, on JB’s ride on VooDoo Child, his riding hand is clearly out of the rope at 7.8. The ride was without a doubt a great ride, but not for the full 8 seconds. The ride should have been challenged by the judges. Now, after the review, the replay judge could have determined that he made the 8, but it still should have been reviewed. If you can say that a rider commit’s a foul, from a vantage point that is opposite side from the rider, you can call for a review, in the short go, when it’s that close. In my opinion, ANY ride and ANY rider that is that close to the 8 seconds, should be reviewed in the short go. There is too much at stake to not make sure you got it right.
The PBR comment section exploded with comments. Some positive for Renato, some negative. Some of the negative comments were personal and/or racist insults against Renato, this I do not understand. Even if you did not like the fact that he challenged another riders score, to condemn Renato is totally misguided. If you are upset, then be upset with the PBR for having the challenge button in the first place. You don’t condemn an athlete for following the rules that are available to him. Renato did not push the button to harm Ryan McConnel or challenge him. He used the button and the rules to challenge the judges, which again is completely within the rules to do so. Some have called Renato’s character into question. This is just completely out of bounds. If you disagree with someone’s actions, then say so and discuss (intelligently) those actions, not the personal character of the rider, for simply pushing a button. Come on folks, this a sport, not life and death.
As of late Tuesday, Renato has been somewhat vindicated. The PBR has announced they have suspended all four judges from the Greenville event for the remainder of the season. They have also announced that they will be looking into ways to improve and implement training of the judges. I think is a great move. Some of these judges will improve their skills or have to look for employment somewhere else. I think this is a long time in coming. The PBR should have been making the changes that they are now talking about way before this event. Since the Sacramento fiasco, it doesn’t look like much has been done in the way of fixing the judging problems, other than suspending one judge.
I will have another blog in a few days about what I think regarding what the PBR could do to improve the judging situation and give some examples of others being suspended in other sports for bad calls.
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