Eldred’s Fire is Rekindled as he Wins First UTB Event of his Career
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Brennon Eldred knew he was not right when he arrived in Sacramento, California, eight months ago and stepped foot inside the Golden 1 Center.
Eldred was set to make his 2020 season debut following a fourth-month layoff because of a dislocated hip he sustained when Hard Knox bucked him off and dislocated his hip at the 2019 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals.
The Sulphur, Oklahoma, bull rider had to miss the 2019 PBR World Finals, as well as the first three events of the 2020 season, but there was something else missing when Eldred started to unpack his gear bag in Sacramento.
“It just didn’t feel right,” Eldred admitted this week 24 hours after winning the first premier series event of his career in Des Moines, Iowa. “My confidence wasn’t there. In this sport, your confidence has to be sky high if you want to win. It was tough.”
Things only got tougher later that night in Sacramento when New Perception bucked him off in 4.42 seconds, knocking him unconscious and sending him bloodied to the PBR Sports Medicine room.
Further doubt began to creep into Eldred’s mind, and his return to competition was far from how he would have liked it.
If you would have asked Eldred then if he would be riding Crossover for an event-winning 92.25 points this past Sunday, he probably would not have been truly convinced.
“I came back for that first one and I got knocked out,” Eldred said. “I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know.’ It was tough. I questioned myself a lot if I still really wanted to do it. I didn’t have that drive, and I didn’t want to go through that again. If you are going to do this, you can’t be thinking like that. You can’t be scared to get hurt, because you are going to get hurt if you do it enough.”
Thus began a rollercoaster of emotions for Eldred throughout the first half of the Unleash The Beast season.
Eldred struggled inside the arena, going 7-for-21, and the three-time PBR World Finals qualifier headed into the summer break barely inside the Top 35, sitting in the No. 33 hole.
“To hurt my hip that bad was pretty devastating,” Eldred said. “That has had a lot to do with my comeback. It has been hard coming back from that. It was a pretty hard injury and pretty painful. Sitting out four months, coming back from something like that, I would have to say that was the toughest injury I ever came back from, no doubt.
“There was a point or two where I wasn’t sure if I would ever be back to my normal self because of that injury.”
In the past, Eldred would be able to find his fire with the help of his good buddy, Chase Outlaw. However, Outlaw was recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, so Eldred did not have his normal traveling mate to help him “get out of his own way.”
Eldred’s doubts continued with every buckoff he went through.
Things only got worse during June when Eldred went just 1-for-7 at the Monster Energy Team Challenge in June.
“Riding one here or there, just not stringing them together, I was not happy with how I was performing.” Eldred said.
Eldred had once bucked off 24 consecutive bulls in 2018.
“Before I came to the PBR, I have never been in a position like these past few years, having so many buckoffs and not winning,” he said. “I was not used to not winning coming over here. The injuries started piling up. Your confidence goes down. I just never had been in the position before. I don’t think I knew how to respond to it.”
Eldred had motivation at home, though, and his daughter, Jade Jolene, and fiancée, Jewel, served as a reminder that he could no longer just show up to events and be OK receiving only a show-up check.
Buddies like Outlaw and Dalton Kasel were still cheering him on from afar, too.
Eldred told himself in early August with the second half of the Unleash The Beast set to resume that something had to change.
“Chase lights that fire into anybody, and from going and staying with him every weekend to him not being there, I had to try and figure out myself,” Eldred said. “That was one of the hardest things, especially coming back from that injury. Not having them guys there to push you every day, I just had to figure it out on my own. I just had to find that fire again.
“My daughter opened my eyes. I am not going to be doing this just to hear my name called. That is how you get hurt, bad hurt. I want to do this for real and make not only a living for me, but for my family as well, and a good living at that. I want to set us up for a long time to come. I know what I am capable of. I have another fire in me, and I finally got over the hill with that injury.”
Eldred eventually paused on Monday afternoon amidst his honest conversation about his 2020 journey.
He glanced down on his lap at Jolene and could not help but smile as he looked at his daughter and then at his ranch.
Eldred had recently purchased an old semi-truck from Chad Berger, and he will be able to use some of his $33,385.62 winnings from Des Moines to put toward his investment and future plans of having a hauling company.
The 25-year-old knows success in the arena will lead to a greater future for his family.
“Twenty-five years in bull riding years is pretty old,” Eldred said with a laugh. “Unless you are Joao Ricardo Vieira and age is just a number. I am going to plan on when I retire riding bulls to have three or four trucks going down the road constantly.”
Retirement is still a ways away for Eldred.
Now he is turning his focus toward building off his career-changing victory.
Eldred is 13-for-37 (55.14%) on the Unleash The Beast this season, and he is on the cusp of breaking his career-high number of qualified rides (14) and posting his first Top-20 world standings finish of his career. Eldred finished a career-best 26th in the world last season despite missing the 2019 World Finals.
“Things are just up from here,” Eldred concluded. “This proves to myself I can win them events, and to finally get them down in the short round and be 92 points. I am ready to win more now, and the bigger ones soon. Winning stuff like the World Finals is definitely something that can happen. That is something that can dang sure set me up for more to come.
“I just had to tell myself this is something I really want to do deep down inside. I want to win, and I want to be a champion. I want to win the world. I just didn’t want to give up that easy and quit. I had to dig down a little bit deeper and get that fire back again.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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