The last few months have been a lot of fun, team ropers needed something new to argue about and talking about crossfire has provided a little spark. It was just a coincidence that Bob Feist's wrap up article on the WNFR in his Ropers Sports News arrived at the same time that that the 2004 USTRC rule books hit the mailboxes. Spin To Win asked me to air this one out a little, which I agreed to do. I don't think the USTRC rule change is as big a deal as everyone has made out, still it raises a few questions that I will pose at the end of this commentary. These questions aren't meant to disagree with the rule change, I think they are legitimate questions for everyone.
In the new rule book ropers were discovering that the USTRC had legalized crossfiring. To be more specific, "the steers head merely needs to be turned." Meanwhile, Bob Feist's article commented on the Thomas and Mack set up and how he felt that crossfire should be allowed at the finals. In that same article Bob said, "We used to allow crossfiring at the BFI but it was eliminated because many of the ropers did not know how to execute it properly so it made for very poor watching, plus people knew it couldn't be done anywhere else so why here."
The funny thing about listening to or reading the chat line discussions on crossfire is how many younger ropers don't know that much about it and how many older ropers seem to believe they know it all. The young guys think crossfire is just a pretty little perfect side switch, when actually it is a little more than that. A true crossfire is pretty ugly. The header widens to rope the horns, while the heeler falls in directly behind the steer. When the header bends the steer's head, the heeler ropes the feet, the header kind of runs by the steer. The amount and ferocity of the yank on the steer depends on how wide the header roped or how wide he became after he roped.
The "mature" guys that winter in Arizona, regardless of what region they are from, think they know the exact guy that caused the rule change. One said, " I saw Frank Matthews kill a steer at Redmond, and I knew they were going to ban it." Another said, "Mike Beers caused it." Some that watched 11 year-old Sterling Price and 12-year-old Wes Smith whip the entire PRCA pack at the OS Ranch Roping in the early 1970s claimed that was what ended crossfire. Others claimed Rickey Green caused the crossfire ban. Rickey was a wild man with the crossfire and at one point won five rounds at the NFR and took five no-times in the same finals. He was also infamous for missing on a crossfire at the BFI while leading the average on three. But no, those guys were only part of the reason for the ban.
Jackpots, junior rodeos, amateurs, high school rodeo, NIRA, everyone followed the crossfire ban of the PRCA. The PRCA team roping director at the time of the ban was Dick Yates. Dick discussed the matter with a lot of his fellow team ropers and the majority of professional ropers at that time agreed that it was in the best interest of professional rodeo and team roping to restrict crossfire. I visited with Dick about it recently and here are some of his comments:
"At that time there were only a half dozen guys that could do it consistently, we felt it was going to run off some of our teams, but we were more worried about the rodeo fans. With a lot of ropers trying to crossfire you might have a performance with two catches and 10 misses. We didn't want team roping to become the event where fans took their bathroom break. As the team roping director I wanted to do the right thing for the sport, but on the other hand J.D. was one of the half dozen heelers that could consistently crossfire a steer. We won Spanish Forks that year with a crossfire and there wasn't anyone within two seconds of us. In the end I think I was leaning toward being against crossfire, because of the horsemanship issue. You didn't need much of a heel horse to fall in behind the steer and stop just a little. Head horses didn't need much of a move, the heeler was going to yank you straight and a good facing horse didn't help much. A crossfire will throw some slack into the rope so headers were hitting the end of the rope harder. I felt like horsemanship and roping skills were heading in the wrong direction."
With that simple statement from the guy that had the vote, history on the PRCA decision was maybe a little simpler than folks believe. Which brings us to today. Roping on a basketball court with one hop to the wall on the most watched rodeo in the world may indeed lead to an exception to the rule in the professional world. The problem is that although PRCA set the initial rule for rodeo, times have changed and pro roping is miniscule in size and range to the recreational roping market. What happens at the NFR has no bearing on you and I. In the real world recreational roping rules (99.8%), which make the USTRC rule change much bigger and maybe just a little bewildering.
