BY BRETT NIERENGARTEN
Tim O’Connell was not happy with himself after the first three rounds of the Wrangler NFR.
The first night rocked his confidence, the second beat him up and the third was, in his words, just horrible.
The worst part? He had nothing to do to get over it. Being with fans and sponsors for long autograph signings in Las Vegas is something that typically helps him change his mindset and get ready for the next night. Instead, all he could do was let his lackluster performances in the first three rounds linger.
“I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t have my joy stolen from me a couple nights ago,” he said. “When you’re sitting in a hotel room, you can’t help but think about it.....I thought about Round One for two days and then I was really upset with myself last night and my performance. I was really unhappy with my body language too.”
Thanks to a church service Sunday morning about forgetting the past and some calls from his mentors to find some joy in riding bucking horses again, he showed why he was still the No. 1 man in the world with a 90.5-point ride on Pop A Top as the last cowboy out to win Round Four Sunday night.
“This is the version of me that I wanted to show up in Round One,” he said. “This is what I came here to do....I knew I put a great ride on him, it felt really good.”
More important than his mentors, fans and sponsors, O’Connell has had another thing keeping him going this week, and over the last two years - his family.
Because he can’t sign or partake in any other usual Wrangler NFR festivities this year, he has gotten an opportunity in Arlington to spend more time with his wife and 2.5-year-old son, something he has gotten to do a lot of recently.
Due to COVID-19 in 2020 and his injury in 2019, he’s been able to be present in his day-to-day life and has realized the importance of the little moments with his family. He says he has become a better father because of time away from rodeoing and it has helped him realize that despite how competitive he is, the most important thing to him is to be a better father and husband at this stage in his life.
“There’s so much that we miss so often that regular people who don’t leave their families for 200 days out of the year don’t understand,” he said. “So, I’ve really turned more into a father than I think I would’ve been.”
There’s still a killer in there under the family man, though, and O’Connell knows his fourth Gold Buckle won’t come easy.
Four-time World Champion Kaycee Feild is breathing down his neck and so is Richmond Champion and Leighton Berry. In O’Connell’s worlds, it’s going to be a “dirty knife fight” until the very end. And that’s a knife fight he expects to win.
“That’s just the higher standard I hold myself too, I expect myself to be perfect every time I nod my head,” he said. “I train for this on a daily basis for hours on end, and so do the rest of the guys in that locker room. That’s why you’re witnessing such great bareback riding happening.”
