At Amerant Bank Arena, the Sunshine State’s Professional Bull Riders team, the Florida Freedom, will play their home state debut.
It’s not the first rodeo in South Florida, with the Professional Bull Riders competition coming to Amerant Bank Arena.
Other bull-riding competitions have been held in the area over the years, such as the yearly Homestead Championship Rodeo at Harris Field in Homestead and the Bergeron Rodeo Grounds in Davie.
The Florida Freedom, the first Professional Bull Riders (PBR) team in South Florida, will make their home debut at the Sunrise event, which is scheduled for August 2-4. Before announcing its move in November, the Freedom played its first two seasons as the Oklahoma Freedom in the five-on-five bull-riding league.
The league hopes to capitalize on South Florida’s varied population and views itself as an international sport, with many of the riders for the Florida Freedom hailing from Brazil.
Heath Freeman, the owner of the Florida Freedom, spends a portion of the year in South Florida, which contributed to the team’s decision, according to Freedom coach Paulo Crimber.
In addition, Freeman recently declared that in 2025 he will bring a Big Three basketball team to Miami. He is the AVP pro beach volleyball league’s executive chairman.) Brazilian-born Crimber joyfully recalls his three years of competition in South Florida as a bull rider.
Regretfully, his career was cut short by two serious neck injuries, the second of which happened in Orlando in 2008.
Crimber says, “A bull fell on top of me.” “I could be dead or paralyzed, but because of the grace and kindness of the Lord, I’m still here.” After a three-year break, Crimber decided to pick up bull riding again so his son John could watch him participate.
After a span of twelve years, the older Crimber is currently mentoring his 18-year-old son, whom the Freedom chose with their first pick in the PBR draft.
Since the day he was able to walk, I knew he was a bull rider,” Crimber claims. “He started riding a bull on everything he sat on, even the dog and couch.
I had to decide whether to support him in becoming the best or to discover afterwards that he was doing it behind my back. I decided to give him the best support they had ever had.” Crimber acknowledges that, contrary to popular belief, he is more anxious about his son’s professional future than he was about his own.
“I don’t fear for his safety. As part of the sport we selected, that is. At some point, it will occur, the elder Crimber predicts. “When it comes to him handling the judges and competition, I get more anxious.
Furthermore, a lot of individuals are nasty and harsh and don’t want you to succeed. I’m primarily terrified of disappointment.”
The rider must to stay on the bull for eight seconds in order to get a score from the judges according to the rules of the sport. The winning team is the one with the highest total score.
The third season of the PBR Teams league began on July 12 and will end on October 18–20 in Las Vegas with the title. CBS, Paramount+, Merit Street, and Merit+ all broadcast the games.
Although bull riding has historically been associated with the South, it’s important to remember that the ten-team PBR league does feature the New York Mavericks, a team from New York City. And there’s the league’s significant Brazilian representation.
Bull riding is common in Brazil due of the country’s extreme poverty, according to Crimber, who immigrated to the United States in 1998 at the age of 18. “I was among them.
These people make up the majority of the riders. You could play soccer, ride bulls, or labor for thirty dollars a day. These are your possibilities for providing a better life for your family. Crimber claims that once you start riding that bull, it gets addictive.
Crimber compares it to “touching the sky and walking on the moon.” “Listening to the entire stadium applaud you is the most surreal and joyful experience in the world.
We get so dependent on it because of this. The thing I miss the most is that.” Crimber coached the Arizona Ridge Riders before to taking the helm as head coach of the Florida Freedom.
He claims that his exposure to the sport as a coach has made it easier for him to move on from his short-lived career.
“I get to live through every single member of the team every time that gate opens,” adds Crimber. It is quite beneficial. I get to hang around behind the chutes and experience the bull riders’ rush of adrenaline.”
