PUEBLO, Colo. – The 2015 World Champion Bull title was Jared Allen Air Time’s to lose on the final day of the 2015 Built Ford Tough World Finals and Carolina Panthers defensive end Jared Allen was sitting inside Bank of America Stadium intently watching Air Time’s final out.
Allen was in the training room with some of his teammates in Charlotte, North Carolina, preparing for their matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, while stock contractor Matt Scharping tried frantically to get Air Time, who has been known for a hair trigger throughout his career, to calm down inside the bucking chute at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Even when Scharping was able to seemingly calm Air Time, Ryan Dirteater refused to nod his head as he continued to try and get comfortable on the back of the stud bovine athlete.
“I noticed he was in the chutes a long time,” Allen says in the upcoming one-hour CBS documentary, “PBR: Danger on the Dirt,” which airs on Sunday at either 3 or 5 p.m. ET (depending on market). “Dirteater kept re-pulling on him and I was like ‘ugh.’”
It was a perfect storm for a potential failed out, and by the time Dirteater nodded for the gate Air Time was clearly not at as his best after a long battle inside the bucking chute.
“Then he had that little pause coming out of the gate,” Allen says while shaking his head. “I was just crying, but then I saw him explode out.”
Air Time was able to dismount the 26-year-old bull rider in 4.21 seconds, but he was only marked 42.5 points.
It was a complete opposite performance from Air Time’s dominant 47-point out against 2010 World Champion Renato Nunes in his first out of the Finals.
After that first out, Allen was confident his bull was in the driver’s seat.
“He just stomps on a 47 and it was like boom we got it,” Allen said.
Instead, Air Time finished third in the World Champion Bull race behind SweetPro’s Long John and Bruiser.
Last season marked the second consecutive year that Air Time came up short in the World Champion Bull race.
Air Time finished 10-0 this past season with an average bull score of 45.05 points per out. He will likely be another strong contender for the 2016 World Championship.
“If you are going to lose, you want to lose my best versus your best,” Allen says. “With Air Time not having his best out, it is just one of those things. You know he put so much time and energy and effort into it for it to come down to one out, one ride for all of the marbles, but that is the game we are in, right?
“There can only be one winner.”
On Sunday, fans are able to see Allen’s disappointment from this past season, but also his passion for the PBR up close and personal.
“The PBR World Finals to a bull owner is your Super Bowl, especially when you got a bull going for bull of the year,” he says. “That is it. That is what we compete all year for.
“I want elite bulls. I want to go out and I want to dominate those events and I want to dominate people.”
Added Scharping: “World Finals is hard to explain. You work your tail off all year long and for us to get that animal to that point and to have an animal to come and play is pretty special.”
The World Finals was only another added-frustration for Allen, who has also yet to win a Super Bowl ring during his 12-year NFL career.
This season arguably may be his best opportunity with the currently- undefeated Carolina Panthers, which are 14-0, headed into this weekend’s game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Allen last came close to earning a trip to the Super Bowl in 2009 with the Minnesota Vikings before the team lost in overtime to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game.
His bull may have also came up short of a championship this year, but he knows Air Time will have another chance this coming season.
“You know bull riding is bull riding,” Allen says. “It comes down to the draw. It comes down to the day. The footing .There are so many different elements, which kind of makes it exciting. It wasn’t our day, but there is always next year.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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