Ride ’em cowboy!
Journalists are known for slinging bull, not riding it. But for three years running, at Manhattan’s Johnny Utah’s, media types have faced off against an enormous mechanical bull in the “Big Apple Buck Off,” a charity event that HuffPost editors have won ― every single year.
On Wednesday, fellow reporter Sebastian Murdock and I took on the metal beast to defend our title.
We faced off against editors and reporters from the New York Daily News and ABCNews.com, among other, and we did it in the presence of Professional Bull Riding World Champ Cooper Davis, a man who has won millions of dollars (and broken dozens of bones) doing what we were trying to do, only on a much grander scale.
The event was a warm-up to this weekend’s three-day PBR championship at Madison Square Garden, where cowboys will ride actual 2,000-pound bulls (with no cushy flooring to catch you when you fall) and buck their way to glory.
Organizers have trucked in 750 tons of dirt, dumped atop the ice where the New York Rangers play, to provide the 8 inches of topsoil for riders to compete for the coveted gold buckle.
As for our amateur bull riding, we laughed, I cried and held on for dear life. Watch the full mayhem and madness above to find out who left with $2,017 for the charity of their choice.
For tickets to see the Professional Bull Riders competition, check online here.