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Najiah Knight’s Moon Shot

By: Andrew Giangola

Underneath a beige cowboy hat, Najiah Knight glided into Madison Square Garden last week light and easy, catching occasional recognition.

“It’s that bull-riding girl from Vogue!”

“Hey, I saw you on Kelly Clarkson!”

These unexpected, enthusiastic overtures still surprise the newly minted teenager even as they become more frequent. Each is returned with a gentle tilt of the hat and polite “thank you, ma’am” or “yes, sir.”

A few hours later — after starring in a panel discussion with female sports pioneers and being featured on the big screen during a break in the action of the New York Rangers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game — recognition for the budding bull rider rose another level.

In the giddy corridors of “the World’s Most Famous Arena” following a win over an Original Six team, a star was being born.

Countless fans exiting the arena called her name (pronounced “NAY-jah”) or shouted encouragement.

The theme was consistent: We love you! Keep it up! Go girl! Ride those bulls!

Who wouldn’t be rooting for an adorable 13-year-old trying to accomplish a big, hairy goal she plainly declares in every interview?

“I want to be the first girl to make it in the PBR,” Najiah says, sometimes with a hint of mischief but more often the plain way anyone might state, “I’m going to the grocery store for milk.”

Her declaration will wow, but to Najiah Knight, back home, away from the video tributes and on-the-dirt recognition, life is still simple. Go to school. Hit basketball practice. Do your homework. Get on the barrel that dad set up. Then take a trip on an airplane to ride a few bulls.

 
It’s just the life she’s living, doing the work that will in six to eight years hopefully lead to competing for the same gold buckle as her heroes J.B. Mauney and Jess Lockwood.

Make no mistake: to be the first girl in the PBR is also Neil Armstrong-level audacity. To many it’s a declaration as preposterous as the moon shot when first announced by President Kennedy.

It’s never been done before. There are so many reasons this is not possible. Why try?

“Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do,” Najiah responds. “Be strong. Be proud. Work hard.”

The “Najiah Way” is starting to emerge. Be true to yourself. Work hard. Block out negativity. The inevitable setbacks are a chance to learn. Above all, have fun.

The more Najiah is interviewed, the more the seemingly unattainable starts to change shape.

Because who, really, is arbiter of what is personally possible or not? Who has the right to bang the gauntlet on the practical and appropriate path for any of us?

The naysayers never have qualms in asserting a point of view, and Najiah has heard that girls have no place on top of a bone-crushing bull.

“I don’t do it for them,” she says. “I do it for myself.”

Her mom Missi has also privately fielded objections to her daughter’s plan from those claiming a monopoly on the maternal rules for what’s proper and right for a young girl.

“She’s a wild child, and my job as a mom is to support her dream,” Missi says.

Mom plays the role of business manager, working with sponsors Ariat, Cooper Tires and Chad Berger Bucking Bulls, scheduling Najiah’s appearances riding the 700-pound beasts in Chris Shivers’ Mini Bull Riders (MBR) tour and working with PBR to sort the increasing interview requests and phone calls from reality show producers.

Missi also chronicles this improbable rush to fame on social media. She’s a magnet to the celebrities in attendance and the top bull riders putting on the show.

There’s Najiah with Sylvester Stallone. Najiah with Scott Eastwood. Naijiah with Chase Outlaw.

Her mom does the social posting. Over the course of multiple PR and industry events, Najiah has never been observed with her head down obsessing over a phone. She is always present.

The wife of a bull rider and now mother of a developing one understands the sport’s punishing nature, evident in the scar tattooed on her porcelain face following a stomping in Louisiana.

Missi knows the score, and she actually studied to become a certified EMT once it became clear Najiah’s PBR dream wasn’t a fleeting obsession.

Najiah points out she’d have no chance of pursuing her dream without Missi, and her father, Andrew, who woke up at 2:30 a.m. to drive two hours to the airport in Portland to make it to New York for the women in sports celebration.

The Knights, who had never been to New York City prior to the new year, were in town for the second time in four weeks.

In early January, the Rangers’ ice was covered in eight inches of dirt on which Najiah rode, winning the MBR round on PBR Championship Sunday.

The Knights will take Najiah to a half dozen MBR events each year.

Andrew, who rides bulls, mostly in open rodeos out west, has a calm demeanor, which has clearly influenced his cucumber-cool daughter. He built a bucking barrel for Najiah in the shop at their home in Arlington, Oregon, and bucks it for her just about every day.

Next up for the Knights is a MBR event in Lockney, Texas, on February 21-22 at the arena built by Cirilio Leal, who with his wife and daughter, along with support from PBR legend Chris Shivers, formed an organization that has helped produce riders such as 2018 PBR Rookie of the Year Keyshawn Whitehorse and young gun Cannon Cravens.

There will likely be camera crews in Lockney. In the sports world, MBR is suddenly a thing.

PBR’s PR department, which spends day after attempting to sell mainstream media on covering bull riding, has never seen anything quite like this pint-sized pioneer, featured here on the RidePass series “The Short Go.”

 
They’re no longer making the calls. Now it’s People, Access Hollywood and the Today Show phoning the league, which is a completely separate organization from MBR, rather than the other way around.

Right now, at least in big cities like New York where people ride a subway, not a horse, it’s hard to name a bull rider hotter or more famous than Najiah Knight.

The attention is surreal for a kid who just wants to keep putting up straight A’s, play basketball, go to hip-hop dance class and get on bulls.

She’s taking in the adulation with uncanny aplomb, smiling and having fun, tipping her hat to a growing group of adoring fans and offering a sensible life’s philosophy for aspiring athletes —girl or boy — that we’d all do well to follow.

“It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks,” she says. “Just do what you love.”

PBR thanks Christy Burleson for the lead and Scott Eastwood photo. On-ice photo courtesy Michelle Farsi, MSG Sports.

© 2020 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.

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