Back in 1990 I had no historical perspective on crossfire when it became clear that USTRC would need a crossfire rule. We started having problems immediately with the Open and #12 (pro-am). We were the new kids on the block and let's just say that the boys with the big classifications were giving our flaggers a good testing. I am not too sure that the local amateur rodeo heelers didn't try us quite a bit more than the PRCA heelers. "Ridin' High" was the thing to do, and heaven forbid if we didn't give a rerun for a heeler that got a little too high and set up a steer. All the while those youngsters 25 and under were watching the pros and whether they could rope two feet or not, they left the box with the steer, rode high shape, pushed the steer into the left fence and no matter where or how the steer was turned, threw on the first hop. They could ruin a pen of fresh cattle faster than you could unload them off the truck. As for us, we really had no concern for the guy that could rope one steer fast, we wanted to promote competitions where ropers that could rope four steers would get all the money. We saw little growth potential in promoting speed roping. We felt that long averages would ultimately promote the sport and competition. The heeling barrier backed heelers off the high shape but crossfire had not been addressed. We had some pretty heavy arguments all over the country before we finally decided to sit down and figure out a crossfire rule.
At that point in time, I relied heavily on the advice I was getting from Hugh Chambliss when it came to rules. Hugh's experience heading the PRCA officials for a number of years made him well versed in the dilemma involving crossfire. His advice was simple, "You have two choices, either put both ropers in the same box and let the first roper to the steer rope, or make the heeler wait until the steer is turned and in-tow. Anything in-between is a flagger's call. At the beginning of the turn you have to decide 'is the head bent,' 'has the body changed directions' or is the 'animal under control?' Depending on which of these criteria you want to use, and in a split second also determine, 'when the loop was released' or 'when the rope hit the ground' depending on which one of those two criteria you want to follow. There is no difference between making a call at the beginning of the turn or the end of the turn (was he in tow, or was there side action); it is a split-second subjective decision. If you make it a judgment call, then you will always have an argument. If you do not allow any side action of the steer (switch), then the argument is over."
With such clear alternatives, and such a clear objective, I decided to make the rule fit the majority of the situations, and the majority of ropers. We felt it was in the best interest of long average roping, horsemanship and the sport, to gear our rule to recreational ropers and away from crossfire and the pros. Therefore, we followed Hugh's advice and the steer had to be turned and in-tow before ropers could release their ropes. Within two years the arguments over crossfire calls were only occasional. Which brings us back to the reason for the USTRC rule change. The official response from the USTRC is that the rule change would relieve the judgment on the flaggers. Quote, "besides, if it doesn't work out, we'll switch it back." Well, I really had hoped they would give me a more inventive response like, "we think the heel barrier solved 75 percent of the problem and the other 25 percent is not worth arguing about," but I don't guess that was the answer.
While talking about crossfire is fun, it may not drastically alter the outcome of many ropings. I have been watching all the spring ropings and ropers that are out of the average use it for go-round throws and some distant short round teams use it attempting to move up. Clearly a lot of ropers recognize crossfire as a low percentage throw, but second and most important, there is a huge problem with learning a crossfire throw if you are not a rodeo cowboy.
Lets face it, crossfiring is faster than roping cattle correctly. If it weren't faster why would people want to take a riskier throw? People who can do it consistently will have advantage over those that can't. Anytime there is a clear advantage someone's classification will go up. This in itself is not a bad thing, until they go to another jackpot where the contractor owns his own cattle, and let me assure you they will not allow crossfire. A handicap acquired by crossfiring could pose a major obstacle to their roping future. I can guarantee you that if a team in a short round moves up five to ten calls on a crossfire throw, 10 to 20 ropers will be casting very specific on-line ballots. Ropers that were whipped by the crossfire are going to assist the guy with the trick shot right into a trap. And don't kid yourself, it isn't a matter of being a smart or stupid roper, there are plenty of ropers that will place occasionally looking "cool" at the top of their priority list. Why? Because of their age and just because they can't resist.
I feel the crossfire problem all but disappeared ten years ago with the original rule placement, but obviously the basis for this entire discussion proves that my opinion is not unanimous. If you walk up to any flagger and ask them how often they have to make a crossfire call, generally you will hear the range of a few hundred in upper divisions to every thousand calls in lower number ropings. Ask any flagger what the hardest judgment call is, and generally they mention the difficulty in determining how straight the horses are and how tight the ropes should be before dropping the flag. When I heard that I thought about all the times I have seen the crowd yell at a flagger to GIVE that poor roper with the no-facing head horse a flag. If that header is a little kid or a women then double the sound level. These guys are paid to be consistent, and under some arena conditions and at various ability levels, it is sure difficult to figure that problem out. Say what you want about no-face, this is the area where the flagger needs a prayer and a solution. How many times at a roping will you see this problem versus a crossfire call? What's the ratio?
The general rule of thumb of roping associations has been to pass rules 1) That help with a problem, 2) That help with an anticipated problem, 3) That helps the sport of team roping, and 4) Where it makes economic sense. Answering this criteria one by one; 1) It doesn't appear a lot of flaggers are having a lot of problems with a lot of crossfiring; 2) this number is not applicable; 3) If the majority of your customers are low number ropers, shouldn't you be promoting consistency?; 4) Crossfiring promotes misses but there aren't enough crossfire attempts to buy hamburgers for the chute crew, so no economic gain. Not that legalizing crossfire is that big a deal, but tell me again, why was this done?
