Every year, Flint Rasmussen selects the rodeo athletes he thinks will win world titles in each of the disciplines during the National Finals Rodeo.
And then each day during his Outside the Barrel talk show he typically talks about how bad his selections are faring in the overall world standings.
This past NFR was different.
For starters, steer wrestler K.C. Jones approached Rasmussen about participating in the Charity Celebrity Tattoo League, in which 13 rodeo celebrities chose a fantasy team with the with winner receiving $3,000 for the charity of their choice.
Rasmussen naturally selected the Rider Relief Fund.
Each of the 15 NFR qualifiers in each discipline were assigned a monetary value and the 13 celebrities fantasy players, which included rodeo announcers, hall of famers and barrel men, had to stay within a salary cap when it came to assembling their respective teams.
“You register your team online,” explained Rasmussen, who said that more than 3,000 fans also played in a league open to the public, “and you draft a team of cowboys.”
Rasmussen said he’s done it on his own for years and never come close to selecting the winning team.
“We do updates every day on my show,” Rasmussen said. “Usually about how bad I’m doing.”
This year he won.
In addition to the $3,000, they also raised another $3,331 from fans, who decided to donate to the winning total for a donation of $6,331.
Fellow barrel man Justin Rumford finished last.
He had a choice of either donating another $1,000 to RRF or getting a tattoo designed by Rasmussen and earning a $2,000 donation to the charity of his choice.
Rumford elected to get the tattoo – a barrel with three stars across the top, which represent his year old triplets, and NFR on the side of the barrel with the R.F. initials discreetly in the lower right hand corner – and donated $2,000 to Brooke’s Blossoming Hope.
Rumford, the reigning NFR Barrel Man and Pro Rodeo Clown of the Year, was in eighth place out of 13 going into the last day, while Fred Whitfield had been in last the entire week.
The bottom of the celebrity fantasy standings dramatically changed after the final round and Rumford fell five spots to last. He told Rasmussen that he elected to get the tattoo because one day it will serve as a lesson for his three boys with regard to responsibility.
“He’s as good a guy as you could ever meet and just hilarious,” Rasmussen said. “I lucked out and picked a good team. I thought it was cool.”
Rasmussen added, “I don’t want to take more credit than I deserve, but just to get more eyeballs on it through radio and TV. … It’s whatever you can do to make people pay attention to it, just like this charity league I did.”
The RRF benefits bull riders and bullfighters from all organizations in a time of need following an injury that prevents them from competing.
As an example, Rasmussen talked about Pistol Robinson.
Robinson broke both legs in a freak accident in the third round of the 2012 season-opening event in New York.
“Pistol is a good example of it isn’t just that he couldn’t compete,” Rasmussen said. “He couldn’t really function in life. I mean, he had two broken legs and was in a wheelchair. It’s not like he could (say), ‘Well, I guess, I’ll go get another job.’ He was out. We think of it or fans think of it as, he just can’t compete, but a lot of the injuries these guys get, they really can’t do anything. That’s where charities like this step in.”
Throughout the year, Rasmussen takes part in other events and fundraisers on behalf of RRF.
None more so than the jersey he donates during the annual Built Ford Tough Series event in Springfield, Missouri. One night he wears a specially designed jersey with a RRF logo along with his customary Cooper Tires design and donates the jersey to be auctioned for charity.
For the second year in a row, his Outside the Barrel talk show was broadcast on RFD-TV, and his weekly radio show airs on Rural Radio on SiriusXM.
Both provide outlets for Rasmussen to get more eyeballs and ears focused on RRF.
As for the $6,331 he raised a couple weeks ago, Rasmussen concluded, “All I did was pick a charity and a good team, really.”
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