NEW YORK — The Professional Bull Riders are on their way and en route to The Garden for the annual Monster Energy Buck-Off, and for those interested, tickets are still available on TicketMaster.
While no one can predict what the stock market will do this year, 2024 gets off to a bullish start this weekend as the Professional Bull Riders will hold its annual Monster Energy Buck-Off at Madison Square Garden. The preliminary competition gets underway Friday evening with the finals set for Sunday afternoon.
Image Credit: Bullstockmedia
Bull riding is like gymnastics in that judges determine the quality of the ride in determining a score. To even get to judicial consideration, a bull rider must last at least eight seconds on a mount before getting tossed off. The ornerier the bovine, the higher the score for the rider.
One myth which needs to be dispelled is that most of the bull riders are from Texas and Oklahoma. Many of PBR’s best riders are from South America as evidenced by its 2023 champion, José Vitor Leme, who is from Brazil. Its 2022 champion, Daylon Swearingen, hails from upstate New York.
José Vitor Leme – Image Credit: PBR
Interestingly, one of the best bull riders in history, Bobby DelVecchio, grew up in the Bronx and has been inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame. Surprisingly, DelVecchio has not yet been honored with a spot on the Bronx Walk of Fame located on the Grand Concourse.
It is fun to watch the bulls, who clearly enjoy trying to toss off their riders as quickly as possible. Most of the time, a bull will go back to the corral as soon as the rider gets tossed. Some bulls, however, love soaking up the applause from the crowd by taking a victory lap around the ring.
Jets general manager Joe Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh reportedly returning in 2024
Last week New York Jets CEO Woody Johnson told New York Post Jets beat writer Brian Costello that both general manager Joe Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh will be returning in 2024 despite the Jets’ continued failure to reach the NFL playoffs. Johnson cited the loss of quarterback Aaron Rodgers at the start of the season which doomed the Jets as a reason for not dismissing them. A new regime would set the Jets back even further, so one can understand his thinking.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Johnson, however, should insist Saleh drop his slogan of “all gas, no brakes” once and for all. I never understood its motivational purpose, but it seems counterproductive given the Jets’ propensity to rack up numerous penalties, especially the costly ones for unsportsmanlike conduct. Penalties are a function of poor coaching. In this case, it may also be related to a coach’s ill-conceived slogan.
The Jets end their miserable season Sunday in Foxboro, MA when they face the New England Patriots in what could be Bill Belichick’s last game as Pats’ head coach. Belichick’s teams have beaten the Jets 15 straight times. The Patriots have a worse record than the Jets, but never underestimate the Belichick mystique. Expect “sweet 16″ this Sunday.
Rutgers defeats Miami in Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl
When the latest incarnation of Yankee Stadium was built, the late Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner, wanted college football, especially a bowl game, to be played there. While the Pinstripe Bowl is far from a marquee event in the world of college athletics, it has been a success. Yankees president Randy Levine estimates the economic benefit of this game to New York City to be more than $25 million.
Over 35,000 spectators came to Yankee Stadium on a surprisingly mild late December day to watch the Rutgers Scarlet Knights defeat the University of Miami Hurricanes by a score of 31-24 in a very entertaining game.
Timmy Ward recovers the blocked punt by his Rutgers teammate Trevor Yeboah-Kodie and returns it for six, and the lead in the 3rd quarter of the Bad Mowers Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium – Image Credit: Rutgers Football
At a pregame press conference for the Pinstripe Bowl, University of Miami CEO Joseph Echevarria spoke about how this game was a homecoming for him since he grew up on Longwood Avenue in the South Bronx. Earlier this year, the University of Miami foolishly lost a football game to Georgia Tech when all they had to do was kneel and run the clock out. Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal instead called for a running play. The ball was fumbled and returned for a game-winning touchdown by the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. National ridicule immediately ensued.
The same thing happened 45 years earlier at Giants Stadium. The Giants could have taken a knee with seconds remaining in the game and enjoyed a win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Giants offensive coordinator Bob Gibson instead ordered his QB, Joe Pisarcik, to hand off the football to running back Larry Csonka. There was a fumble and Eagles safety Herm Edwards cooped up the football and ran it into the Giants end zone for a game-winning touchdown. Eagles fans still refer to this game as “the miracle of the Meadowlands.”
University of Miami CEO Joseph Echevarria in press conference from 2023 – Image Credit: The Chronicle of Higher Education
Joe Echevarria glumly admitted he remembered the Giants’ fiasco and immediately thought about history repeating itself. “You learn the importance of resilience when something like that happens,” he told me when I asked him about that humiliating moment.
The Crossroads of the World with Tom Harris and more from New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve is synonymous with Times Square, and no one is more aware of this than Tom Harris, who is the president of the Times Square Alliance, the business marketing group for the area also known as “the Crossroads of the World.” At the traditional press conference held a few days before the ball drop, I asked him if he had concerns about security, especially given the daily pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rallies occurring around town. “Not at all. Times Square will be the safest place in the world on New Year’s Eve!” Harris confidently replied.
It is a fact that more tourists jam Times Square than locals on New Year’s Eve. It was good business judgment on the parts of both Carnival Cruise Lines and the Fontainebleau Las Vegas to team up with the Times Square Alliance as presenting sponsors of New Year’s Eve 2024.
New Years Eve in Times Square – Image Credit: ABC
The Fontainebleau is Miami Beach’s best-known hotel, and its new Sin City property represents its first brand expansion. To bring more attention to its new property, Fontainebleau management brought in legendary singer Paul Anka to perform “My Way” and “Imagine” before the ball drop in Times Square to bring more awareness to their new hotel.
Anka told me he will be embarking on a world tour in early 2024 which will include a stop at the Westbury Music Fair. “I am also working on a documentary on my life and will have a show on SiriusXM which will start shortly,” he told me. He was not sure which SiriusXM channel it will air. It could run on its Fifties, Sixties, or Seventies channels since he had hits in each of those decades. At age 82, he shows no signs of slowing down.
I kidded Anka about some risqué songs he wrote in the mid-1970s which made some Top 40 radio programmers nervous at the time, “I Don’t Like to Sleep Alone,” and “My Best Friend’s Wife.” “You never know what is going to come out of a songwriter!” he laughed.
Remembering and paying tribute to Tommy Smothers
The death of Tommy Smothers, one-half of the comedy-folk singing duo, the Smothers Brothers, had me thinking about their late 1960s CBS Sunday night variety show, “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” The show was revolutionary because its comedy was topical, as it routinely attacked both President Lyndon Johnson, and later Richard Nixon, for their mishandling of the Vietnam War. Although it gathered excellent ratings as it beat out NBC’s powerhouse, “Bonanza,” which co-starred Forest Hills native Michael Landon, nervous CBS executives canceled the show in the spring of 1969.
“The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” was one of the few places on network television at the time where you could see pop and rock acts as the time as Jefferson Airplane, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Buckinghams, and the Association.
RIP, Tommy.
You can read more of Lloyd Carroll’s columns posted weekly on The Queens Chronicle.
