Briggs Madsen rides a bull for the Oklahoma Freedom in a Las Vegas competition.
HONEYVILLE – This summer Briggs Madsen of Honeyville was drafted by the Oklahoma Freedom as a bull rider for a new team sport for the new Professional Bull Riders (PBR) team.
The 22-year old Honeyville resident works with his father pouring concrete during the week. On the weekends he’s part of a team of professional bull riders who try to outscore other teams.
“He grew up pouring footings and foundations,” Briggs’ father Doug said. “He does like to ride broncs and bulls when he can.”
Rodeo is a family thing for the Madsens. His mother Sonya and his siblings are all active in the sport.
“The whole family is active in rodeo except me,” his father said. “I’m the family banker.”
Doug sustained an injury rodeoing and that keeps him out of the arena.
At 140 lbs. and 5’ 6” Briggs is kind of small to be riding 1,500 lbs. bucking bulls. Some say being small is an advantage when riding bulls. He certainly knows the risks. When he was 15-years old and in high school Madsen broke is back in five places from a rodeo accident. He had steel rods put in his back to correct the breaks. He is an inspiration to a lot of bull and bronc riders.
“I was paralyzed from the waist down had to learn to walk again and it was a year before I could get on a horse,” he said. “It was a struggle to come back, but eventually I got back bronc and bull riding.”
The PBR Team Series professional bull riders has teams of bull riders compete against each other, transforming the individual sport of bull riding where riders band together in teams.
“The draft is like a football or any other professional sports draft. Each team had five draft picks,” Madsen said. “Most of the people were chosen from the world rankings. I hadn’t even started my professional career yet.”
The Oklahoma Freedom researched social media posts and found him. Another Utah rider, Kyler Oliver from Roy, was selected in an early round. Oliver went to the Kansas City Outlaws.
“There are five main riders and two alternates on a team,” the Bear River High School graduate said. “The coaches try to pair the rider with the bull. They want to pair us up strategically, so we have the best chance to win.”
The team is off to a slow start. Some of the guys are little banged up but as they get to know each other better Madsen thinks they will be hard to beat.
The inaugural season will pit eight teams that will compete in a 10-event, 28-game regular season. Each game will be a head-to-head, five-on-five contest against another team. The team with the top aggregate score will be crowned the winner.
Kacie Albert, the public information officer for the new PBR, said they are being received well.
“Everyone has been super excited about the sport and the fan base is growing,” Albert said. “Currently, the Arizona Ridge Riders are in the lead.”
The first competition was held in Cheyenne, WY in July.
The PBR competitions can be seen on CBS television network, CBS Sports Network and Pluto TV.