No Surprise to See Newsom Fight through Broken Leg at World Finals
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Just days before the 2021 PBR World Finals at T-Mobile Arena, Frank Newsom was hobbling his way through the South Point Hotel & Casino with a black walking boot on his leg.
The grizzled U.S. Border Patrol bullfighter had every intention of cowboy protecting at his 19th PBR World Finals despite a broken leg he sustained in Lincoln, Nebraska. Still, the 47-year-old certainly appeared more ready to sit in the grandstands of the state-of-the-art arena rather than protect the Top 40 bull riders in the world.
Newsom brushed off any concern about his readiness.
“Oh, I will be alright, and I will be ready,” Newsom said calmly.
Newsom once again proved at this year’s World Finals that the word “tough” is probably not the greatest attribute to describe him as he cowboy protected for all six rounds of competition.
“That guy is tough,” 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis said. “Whenever I voted for the (Golden Barrel) toughest guy in the locker room, that is who I voted for. I think everybody else let that slip their mind because they just are used to expecting so much out of him. That guy is tough.”
Newsom will never be the one to boast about his perceived toughness, either.
The Paoli, Oklahoma, native would be the first to admit he is more blessed than tough. More grateful than battle-tested. More humble than rugged.
Newsom was voted by the top bull riders in the world to protect them at the season-culminating event and promised he was not going to let them down.
Even Newsom can’t explain how he was able to block out any pain in his body during five days in Las Vegas or how he was still able to find the strength to plant on his broken leg and throw himself into the heat of the bullfighting jungle to protect helpless bull riders.
“Man, I tell you what; I don’t know,” Newsom said before Round 2. “I just want to finish the Finals and do a good job. I feel like I had a strong year and as good of a year that I can remember. I was in the best place I have been fighting bulls in a long time. The team is good. I just wanted to finish it out.”
The injury itself was a fluke one and happened when Black Ice kicked him slightly during Round 1 of the PBR Cooper Tires Invitational in Lincoln. Black Ice made contact precisely at a spot on Newsom’s leg where he has a steel plate inserted.
“I have a plate in that leg from an old injury, and he hit it just right,” Newsom said. “I went back to Tandy, and X-rays showed it was broken about a quarter of the way down. It is stable but just painful.”
Newsom tried to stay off his leg as much as he could during the 10 days before the World Finals, and he did what he could to make sure he stayed in shape.
“I was on crutches for a few days, but I stayed moving,” Newsom said. “Leg lifts, pushups, pullups, sit-ups, and just trying to keep everything going. Every day, I was able to do a little more, and I got on the bike and rode 11 or 12 miles a day. Every day just trying to add to it. I felt like I did it good. I got to Vegas in the best place I could. The leg really felt good. I was questioning it a little bit (the first night), and I let that get me in a bind with that big black bull of H.D.’s. It got me soured up pretty good. The sports med guys, they worked on me. I am at my best right now – the best I am going to be.”
Dalton Rudman sustained one of the more serious wrecks at the Finals when he was knocked unconscious in Round 1 by Mike’s Motive.
Rudman said knowing Newsom was there in the arena made it an easier decision to return to competition 48 hours later once the PBR Sports Medicine team cleared him.
“It makes you feel that much better because you know Frank is pretty much the best there ever was,” Rudman said. “Even when he is hurt, he is still really, really good at what he does. It makes you feel better when you don’t have to worry about anything else.”
Newsom worked his first PBR World Finals in 1997 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas when he was 23 years old – 24 years ago. He then worked at the 1998 World Finals before breaking his leg in 1999. He has since cowboy protected at every World Finals since 2005.
To put that into perspective, Newsom was at his first World Finals before 13 of this year’s World Finals qualifiers were even born, including 2020 World Finals event winner Boudreaux Campbell.
“It is so hard to even remember that first year,” Newsom says in disbelief. “The sport has come so far. Just the bulls and the team we’ve got, the format in our bullfighting team. Everything is so much better.”
Jesse Byrne, Newsom, Lucas Teodoro and Cody Webster were voted to be the primary Unleash The Beast bullfighters in 2022. Newsom will take some time during the holidays to figure out how many events he has may want to work next season. He says it’s a day-by-day thing for him and a decision he does not take lightly.
If he were to be voted to work the 2022 World Finals this coming May at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Newsom would have the privilege of having cowboy protected at every venue that has hosted the World Finals.
“I can go to as many bull ridings I want next year or as few as I want,” Newsom said. “I turned 47 last month. I know I have earned it, but I also feel very blessed it has come out the way that it has.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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