Things aren\u2019t going according to plan. And, without even a verbal hint that someone\u2019s hitting the skids, you can tell.<\/p>\n
The blond-haired bronc rider, sporting shorts, socked feet, and a white tee, sits in a nondescript hotel-room armchair. With the curtains drawn and a single nightstand lamp providing the only light, the energy in the hotel room is pensive and solemn \u2014 a far cry from the activity occurring 15 stories down on the Las Vegas Strip, where a sea of cowboy hat-wearing folk are killing time by drinking booze and placing bets before the ninth round of the National Finals Rodeo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the room\u2019s general atmosphere, the bronc rider, Rocker Steiner, is chatting away with his youthful rasp, cutting jokes and critiquing his last few rides \u2014 the horses, the judges, even himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019ll (PRCA) fine me,\u201d Rocker says, wryly, about his private criticisms.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many times have you been fined?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust three or four,\u201d he responds.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old is clearly at ease with his present company, which includes his father, Sid Steiner; fellow rodeo competitor Stetson Wright; a man with a portable massage bed who I\u2019m told is \u201ckind of a chiropractor\u201d; me and my PR chaperone, Terran; and a couple of men wielding cameras \u2014 which are recording.<\/p>\n
Wright, who on this day is in the lead for both the PRCA all-around and bull riding championships, is lying on the massage bed and getting \u201cworked on\u201d by, what we\u2019ll call, the physical rejuvenation specialist. Between Rocker\u2019s sentences, one can hear the grunts, cracks, and pops coming from Wright\u2019s mouth, back, and legs, respectively, as the specialist pushes, prods, and pokes the rodeo star\u2019s ailing muscles \u2014 taking the thorn out of his side, so to speak. Having gone eight straight days straddling tempestuous bulls and broncs, such therapy sessions, which look and sound almost as brutal as a bull ride to these eyes and ears, are a must. Rocker, casually sitting in the armchair with his left elbow resting on his bent knee, has already had his turn with the specialist and is loose and limber for tonight\u2019s ride \u2014 the penultimate ride of the NFR. And, for Rocker, eight seconds of do or die.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t expecting to be in this position \u2014 riding simply to keep his championship hopes alive. Rocker, who had held the No. 1 spot in bareback riding for much of the year and was on pace to smash the record for annual earnings, entered the NFR with a comfortable and sizable lead.<\/p>\n
But, yesterday, the margin for error had disappeared, and for the first time in months, Rocker was no longer sitting atop the leaderboard.<\/p>\n
Sin City<\/p>\n
Of all the commercial airline trips in the world, which amount to over 100,000 daily flights, perhaps none are as exciting, boisterous, and flat-out fun as those that land in Las Vegas. There\u2019s a specific energy about a person who\u2019s an hour away from touching down in Sin City \u2014 at 30,000 feet above sea level, the devil on one\u2019s shoulder pipes in, \u201cFun will be had, and dagnabbit, I\u2019m the one who\u2019s gonna have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And on this particular flight from DFW, in addition to devil-clad shoulders, there\u2019s a cabin full of cowboy hats, plaid collars, and calfskin\u00a0boots with ornate stitchings. I wouldn\u2019t be shocked if extra cups were requested to serve as dip spittoons.\u00a0Yes, it appeared the majority of my fellow passengers were headed to the same place as me: the NFR, the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of rodeo events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Calling the Thomas & Mack Center home since 1985, the NFR is a 10-day competition that crowns the world champs of ProRodeo\u2019s seven disciplines based on year-end earnings. The top 15 earners in each discipline get the invite\u00a0and, unlike other rodeos, elimination rounds at NFR are nonexistent. All 15 cowboys ride all 10 days as the competition becomes a battle of attrition. It\u2019s the Super Bowl, All-Star Game, and Tour de France all rolled into one, while also serving as a de facto conference for cowboys, cowgirls, and those pretending to be one or the other. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the event draws more than 340,000 people to the city each year, roughly half of whom attend at least one night of competition. The others? Well, there\u2019s plenty at NFR to keep line dancers, compulsive shoppers, and country music listeners busy beyond the rodeo.<\/p>\n
No doubt also headed to the NFR, on this its eighth day, were two young women sporting black cowboy hats \u2014 I would suspect in their early 20s \u2014 sitting in the row directly behind me on my flight. With my earbuds out after landing, I couldn\u2019t help but overhear their conversation, especially upon hearing the name \u201cRocker Steiner,\u201d the very man I was traveling to Las Vegas to see.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While my shoddy ears kept me from hearing the context of their back-and-forth, I did pick up the name \u201cRocker\u201d repeated several times interspersed with giggles. Curious, I asked before I exited the plane if they were talking about Rocker Steiner, which they confirmed with the slightest bit of embarrassment, like revealing a tween crush.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t new or rare for Rocker; on rodeo culture\u2019s barometer of attractiveness, he registers as a heartthrob. Go to an\u00a0event where he\u2019s competing, and you\u2019re likely to hear the biggest \u2014 and perhaps even highest-pitched \u2014 cheers as an arena\u2019s announcer calls his name. And in this world of bull riding selling out Madison Square Garden, rodeo entering the mainstream, and the Cowboy Channel\u2019s growing national reach \u2014 on which Steiner has a reality show, \u201cHell on Wheels\u201d \u2014 he\u2019s a bona fide superstar.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody\u2019s got to be the superstar,\u201d Rocker says. \u201cI guess it might as well be me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, what would be your superstar qualities?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, man, I think I\u2019m just going to let that speak for itself,\u201d he says. \u201cI guess I just do things a little bit different than everybody else. I\u2019m not too afraid to voice my opinion, and I kind of just do whatever I want. That\u2019s not meaning I\u2019m going to go rob a bank, but I don\u2019t accept people trying to tell me who or what to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such an independent, unfiltered, to-hell-with-it-and-the-haters attitude has also come with its fair share of criticism and controversy \u2014 the worst of which being an incident where he repeatedly yelled \u201cWhat the f*** do you want from me?\u201d during the 2022 NFR after he received a disappointing score from the judges. \u201cSeemed like a good question to ask,\u201d Rocker says, half-jokingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, this has led to fines, fiery Facebook comments, and strange rumors concerning suspensions and arrests that never happened. But it also marshaled in his image as a maverick willing to buck the traditionalists. He became the Bad Boy of Rodeo, a moniker he now wears with pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way to describe Rocker is loud,\u201d Fort Worth writer, director, and producer Taylor Sheridan said during a talking-head segment on the first episode of \u201cHell on Wheels.\u201d \u201cAnd I don\u2019t necessarily mean with his voice; it\u2019s with his emotions \u2026 he\u2019s incredibly exciting to watch, and the crowd goes crazy. They will not cheer louder at a rodeo than they do when Rocker Steiner gets on.\u201d<\/p>\n
While traditionalists may scoff, others love Rocker\u2019s emotive and unfiltered nature. In a sport where men are hurled off raging animals 10 times their size, perhaps something more than a clutched fist in the air or a wave to the crowd should be considered appropriate. And, I can attest, any time Rocker completes a ride and exhausts the remainder of his adrenaline rush by remaining on the dirt and hyping up the crowd \u2014 a coda to his ride \u2014 it infuses energy into the building and into the competition. One could call it bad-boy behavior, and one could also call it showmanship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And it also makes for great TV.<\/p>\n
In early October, “Hell on Wheels,” a raw, no-holds-barred\u00a0reality show that follows Rocker’s life on the rodeo circuit premiered on The Cowboy Channel. And viewer beware: The show, which wrapped up its first season in early December, contains more than its fair share of bruises, bravado, and\u00a0four-letter words \u2014 rated G it is not.<\/p>\n
Rocker, apparently as much a marketing whiz as he is a bronc buster, hatched\u00a0the idea for the show a couple years ago with his father, Sid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I wanted a Prevost bus to go on the road and take my friends and some cameras and document [my life on the rodeo circuit],” Rocker says, explaining what would eventually become the show’s premise to a tee. And he understood that such a platform, putting his personality wouldn’t just bolster him, but the sport, as well.<\/p>\n
“You ever watch college football?” he then asks me.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, sure.”<\/p>\n
“So, on ‘College GameDay’ (a Saturday-morning show hyping the upcoming games), they’ll do stories on guys who you’ve never even heard of,” Rocker\u00a0continues. “These guys will have these crazy backstories, and you automatically become a\u00a0fan\u00a0and\u00a0start pulling for their team just because they’re on it. And I’m like, ‘Man, rodeo doesn’t have that.’ There are\u00a0so many different personalities and\u00a0so many different people with great stories to tell, but nobody ever gets to see that. And\u00a0it’s hard to be fans of somebody\u00a0you don’t know. So I was like, ‘Man, I want to take a camera crew, and I want people to get to know me.”<\/p>\n
If this is an abridged version of Rocker’s actual pitch to The Cowboy Channel, it’s easy to see why the ears of the channel’s\u00a0head honchos perked up. “I told [the Cowboy Channel] how big I think I could get [rodeo]\u00a0right now,” Rocker says. “I\u00a0think this is the best era of cowboys and\u00a0rodeo of all time. And I’m not shit talking to anybody, but I don’t think anybody can get this started like\u00a0I can. I pretty much told ’em,\u00a0‘If you guys are going to do it with anybody, I think it needs to be me.'”<\/p>\n
In retrospect, Rocker admits\u00a0it was a blessing the show took two years to go from conception to being broadcast on over 40 million living-room screens.<\/p>\n
“I probably wasn’t exactly the best person for people to get to know [at that time],” Rocker says.\u00a0“And I’m not saying I was a bad guy, but I was probably not the smartest guy when I was 18.”<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not just the TV show or\u00a0the\u00a0bad-boy image \u2014 or possessing thick blond locks and the square jaw of an A-list actor \u2014 that\u2019s catapulted Rocker\u2019s popularity; he\u2019s also really, really damn good at riding bucking broncos. And this measly compliment doesn\u2019t come close to appropriately lauding his natural talent at hopping on the bareback of an angry, 1,200-pound equine. After all, if you want to be the most popular, you also have to be the best.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a prodigy,\u201d Rocker\u2019s mom, Jamie Steiner, says. \u201cWhat he\u2019s been able to accomplish this year, at his age \u2014 it\u2019s unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n
And this isn\u2019t a mom doting on her son. She\u2019s absolutely right; it\u2019s unheard of.<\/p>\n
This year, Rocker broke the record for regular-season earnings in PRCA bareback riding, accumulating over $300,000 and, going into NFR, is on track to break the end-of-year earnings record for bareback. And over his career, which began in 2022 at the age of 18 \u2014 when he also qualified for his first NFR and won the Resistol Rookie of the Year Award in bareback riding \u2014 he\u2019s earned over $1.1 million in PRCA competitions alone. At the age of 22, Rocker has already amassed enough records, wins, and accolades to be considered a future ProRodeo Hall of Famer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not shy about his ambitions or reminding one of his abilities, Rocker sees himself\u00a0becoming a transformational figure in the world of rodeo. The sport’s\u00a0Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, or\u00a0Muhammad Ali. Its GOAT.<\/p>\n
“I’m a huge fan of all major athletes, everybody that’s taken\u00a0their sport to the next level,” Rockers says.\u00a0“I mean, I don’t even watch soccer, but I f****ng love David Beckham.\u00a0He took soccer to the next level.\u00a0Connor McGregor took the UFC to the next level. And I really think I’m the guy for rodeo.”<\/p>\n
But needing the hardware to back up his confidence,\u00a0there remains\u00a0one massive,\u00a0all-important title that has thus far eluded him: a PRCA World Championship.<\/p>\n
By the time my American Airlines flight\u00a0landed in Las Vegas on\u00a0Thursday evening, Rocker had completed night eight of the NFR. And the results were not good.<\/p>\n
For the first time in months, Rocker was no longer leading the field of bareback bronc riders. Jess Pope, the 2022 PRCA World Champion, placed first in Rounds 7 and 8 and, now controlling\u00a0his own destiny, was in the driver’s seat to play spoiler and turn Rocker’s Hollywood ending into a tragedy. Rocker would need to bounce back in Round 9 to give himself a shot.<\/p>\n
The Steiners<\/p>\n
If genetics play any part in determining rodeo success, Rocker Steiner\u2019s prodigious career was written in the family tree. Beginning five generations ago, Steiner is the descendant of rodeo producers Buck and Tommy Steiner of Steiner Rodeo Company. Tommy\u2019s son and Rocker\u2019s grandfather, Bobby Steiner, became a world champion bull rider and 2020 National Rodeo Hall of Fame inductee who also competed in bareback and qualified for the NFR three years. Then Bobby\u2019s son and Rocker\u2019s father, Sid Steiner, competed as a steer wrestler and took home the PRCA World Championship in 2002.<\/p>\n
But not to be outdone by previous generations, Rocker also got a double dose of rodeo DNA courtesy of his mother, Jamie, who was an accomplished barrel racer and had also qualified for NFR a couple decades ago. Rocker\u2019s sister, Steely, has followed in her mom\u2019s footsteps and is also a barrel racer.<\/p>\n
Whatever innate personality traits rough stock competitors must have to be successful \u2014 resilience, aggressiveness, perhaps even a little impatience\u00a0\u2014 Rocker had from the get-go.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just a little pistol from the beginning,\u201d Jamie says. \u201cI mean, once he finally got moving, it was a run.\u201d<\/p>\n
As his father, Sid, tells it, Rocker was partially named after his own nickname (Sid Rock) and partially named after the iconic and controversial Atlanta Braves closing pitcher, John Rocker. \u201cI just remember [John Rocker] had a lot of passion,\u201d Sid says. \u201cHe\u2019d sprint out to the mound, and I remember seeing \u2018Rocker\u2019 on the back of his jersey and thinking, \u2018Man, what a badass name.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his lineage, Rocker grew up in a city that many a rodeo-attending Texan would consider the antithesis of cowboy culture: Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And in Austin, he did what Austinites do: grow dreads and take up wakeboarding \u2014 only most don\u2019t dive into aquatic sports at the age of 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was my little wakeboarder,\u201d Sid says. \u201cHe and I were just river rats. He had his flat-rim hat and dreadlocks, and, man, he was just my little buddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But his wakeboarding abilities were advancing at a Tiger Woods-like rate, and he\u2019d participate in his first competition and complete his first flip by the time he was 8. In the competitive world of wakeboarding, it wasn’t a\u00a0stretch to claim Rocker a prodigy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been,\u201d Jamie says. \u201cAnything that he ever did, he was just always able to do and do well. We put him on the swim team and his first meet, when everybody else jumped in feet first, he did a perfect dive. I mean, hands touching straight ahead. A perfect little dive right in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exceedingly talented yet so distinct from other children, Rocker was never destined for a normal childhood with classrooms, recesses, and homework. It’s not that school just wasn’t his\u00a0cup of tee. Tee’s harmless. For Rocker, society’s rigid education system was a proverbial cup of poison.\u00a0\u201cHe was going to be miserable [in school],\u201d Jamie says. \u201cWe were\u00a0going to have to torture him to make him do anything school related, and that just didn\u2019t seem right.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, a decision was made when Rocker was in the fourth grade to begin homeschooling him. \u201cBut that didn\u2019t work very good, either,\u201d Sid admits. \u201cAbout the fifth grade, I just took him with me everywhere. And the funny thing is, you\u2019d never know it. No one would walk away from a conversation with Rocker and think he was a stupid kid that didn\u2019t go to school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I used to tell him all the time, this is kind of an experiment. I might be screwing your life up, so don\u2019t let me down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proof that Sid and Jamie weren’t clamoring to rebel against societal norms and\u00a0tell the\u00a0Department of Education to shove it, Rocker’s older sister, Steely, graduated high school as her class’ salutatorian. According to Jamie, “school is set for her. It’s perfect for Steely; she’s going to excel in that situation.”<\/p>\n
Despite his early successes in wakeboarding, at 13, Rocker\u2019s grandfather, Bobby, would show him a video of kids riding bareback horses, and, if you\u2019ll pardon the clich\u00e9, it was love at first sight. From that day forward, like everything Rocker had pursued up to that point in his life, he would pour himself into bareback riding.<\/p>\n
\u201cRodeo was never something I wanted to be a part of,\u201d Rocker says. \u201cI never wore a cowboy hat. I had a pony that I would ride maybe twice a year with my mom. I was just the kid that was a wakeboarder. I grew up on the lake, and I was just that guy. [Committing to bareback riding] really just snuck up on me one day, and here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Steiners would move to Weatherford in 2020 when Rocker was 16 and the entire family has remained in this hub of rodeo and Western sports ever since.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re a close-knit group, the Steiners. One could argue Rocker\u2019s nontraditional upbringing of foregoing schooling for a different kind of education has made him even closer to his family. And with this bond can come feelings of vicarious pain when a family member is hurting, stressed, or in trouble. This empathy is what has made the last few days in Las Vegas particularly difficult for the Steiners. When one of them is happy and\u00a0joyous, or distressed and\u00a0downtrodden, they all feel similarly. So, it\u2019s been one heck of an up-and-down NFR for every member of the family.<\/p>\n
A quick recap of how we got here: After failing to land a payoff in Round 1 eight days earlier, finishing 12 out of 15, Rocker rebounded by winning Round 2, earning $36,000 and adding a little cushion to his lead. He\u2019d follow this up with two solid performances in Rounds 3 and 4, taking home third and fourth place, respectively, and adding nearly $40,000 to his total earnings. And another victory in Round 5 would serve as a giant step toward claiming his first Gold Buckle.<\/p>\n
This is where things, or more specifically, the horses, would go sideways.<\/p>\n
Over the next three rounds, no matter if it was deserved or not, Rocker failed to tally a ride that would give him a payoff, leaving the door open for others.<\/p>\n
In this sport, there are no goals or baskets or touchdowns. Victory, in many ways, is a subjective outcome determined by\u00a0two things that are \u2014 at least in part \u2014\u00a0outside of a rider’s control: judges and horse draws. The random draws decide which bronco gets assigned to which rider. And getting a bad bronco, one who doesn\u2019t put on the right kind of show, can be devastating to a score, which is decided by two judges. Whatever these appraisers perceive in the chaos-filled eight seconds of a ride\u00a0is, ultimately, the final word, which doesn’t always concur with the audience,\u00a0color commentators, or the parents, siblings, and significant others of a rider. In these instances, one has a knee-jerk reaction to assume the best of anything a\u00a0loved one does \u2014 a natural rose-colored tint to everything, including bareback bronc rides. So, the Steiners, understandably, are hurt and asking questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I met Rocker\u2019s mother for an interview early Friday morning, the morning after three straight days of disappointment at the NFR, for a cup of coffee. She warned me right from the get-go, fighting back tears, that this conversation was going to be difficult for her.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The family] is always there when it\u2019s hard and disappointing and dream crushing,\u201d Jamie says. \u201cThere\u2019s also the part of being positive when things are bad and you try real, real hard to do that. So, tonight we have to pray that he and his horse have the best trip, and the judges see it [positively].\u201d<\/p>\n
The Payoff<\/p>\n
Rocker, still in his hotel room and not yet sporting his iconic red uniform for bronc riding \u2014 clad with logos from \u201cThe Punisher\u201d on his chaps \u2014 slaps on a pair of black jeans, a black cowboy hat, and rings for five of his 10 fingers and makes his way to the elevator with his dad and Stetson Wright. Round 9 begins in just over two hours, and bareback always kicks off the rodeo \u2014 the perpetual premiere for rough stock.<\/p>\n
At Thomas & Mack Center, the mecca of the NFR, there isn\u2019t an empty seat to be found. And the energy, if we were to compare it to our own Stock Show & Rodeo at Dickies Arena, is in a class of its own. The people in this arena aren\u2019t bandwagon fans of rodeo or johnny-come-latelies. No, they\u2019re watching every rider of every event intently and cheering their asses off. And such attention and audience engagement brings an extra level of intensity to the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Rocker is riding last and will know precisely what he must do to either sink, stay afloat, or take command of the World Title. Riding a bronc named Caf\u00e9 Risque, the crowd cheers loudly at the sound of the announcer calling Rocker\u2019s name. The young, red-clad rider, leaning back \u2014 almost reclining \u2014 with spurs near Caf\u00e9 Risque\u2019s shoulders, gives an affirming nod, the chute opens, and Rocker and Caf\u00e9 Risque are released onto the dirt of the performance area.<\/p>\n
Unlike bull riders, bareback competitors don\u2019t sport helmets and stick to the traditional cowboy hat as their headwear of choice, which, inevitably goes flying through the air as if collecting style points for accessory hangtime. Arguably the most physically difficult and demanding of all rough stock sports, the bronc\u2019s violent bucking swings Rocker\u2019s head to a point where it nearly clashes with the top of the horse\u2019s hindquarters, something that happens so quickly and repeatedly that you could set its rhythm as a metronome on\u00a0machine-gun mode. And Rocker, as if a glutton for punishment, continues to spur the bronco in its shoulders, causing him to buck even harder. It’s frantic and disorderly, but there’s also a rhythm to the madness.<\/p>\n
Is Rocker doing well? Is his ride on Caf\u00e9 Risque going better than the 14 that preceded it? If one were judging solely on the decibels emitting\u00a0from the audience at Thomas &\u00a0Mack, Rocker would\u00a0no doubt be at the top of the heap. The eight-second timer buzzes, and Rocker soon after falls to the ground before the pickup man \u2014 those on tamed and saddled horses who assist riders off the bucking bronco \u2014 could arrive. As Rocker falls, the arena lets out a collective gasp cut short by the bronc rider\u00a0quickly rising to his feet. With his\u00a0red chaps dirtied and his blonde hair mussed, Rocker emphatically\u00a0puts his hands up in the air, both as a sign of relief and exhilaration. He knows, with that ride, that he\u2019s done it; he\u2019s wrestled back control of the World Title. And the crowd, as if the Dallas Cowboys kicked through a last-second field goal, lets out a thunderous cacophony of hoots, hollers, and claps. No other competitor for the remainder of the night would receive such an ovation.<\/p>\n
For the next 24 hours, commentators and Cowboy Channel talking heads would describe\u00a0Rocker’s\u00a0Round 9 ride\u00a0as \u201cgutsy,\u201d \u201cpressure-packed,\u201d and \u201ccomposed.\u201d He\u2019d score an 85.75 and end up tied for second on the round. But, most importantly, his closest rivals would finish outside the payoff positions, giving Rocker the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The following day, Round 10, Rocker controlled his own destiny. Riding last again, he\u2019d pull a horse called Disco Party, one with which Rocker had shared a positive history. And, with the title on the line, he\u2019d outdo himself and score a 90.5 and again come in second for the round, securing the PRCA World Title and the gold buckle \u2014 the last vacancy on his stellar resume. Though\u00a0one might still criticize Rocker’s unabashed confidence as hubris or vanity, Rocker now has the hardware to back it up.\u00a0At this moment, he is the greatest.<\/p>\n
Following his victory, Rocker said winning the title was \u201ceverything I\u2019ve ever wanted, dreamt about, worked for, bled for, cried for. This is everything. But this wasn\u2019t necessarily about the gold buckle (World Title), [I did] this for my family. I want my family to know their son is the best at something.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things aren\u2019t going according to plan. And, without even a verbal hint that someone\u2019s hitting the skids, you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[889,15304,2633,8194,116,118,117,8193,49480,47592,8369,6795,154,92],"class_list":["post-111413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-brian-kendall","tag-celebrity","tag-features","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-longform","tag-people-to-watch","tag-profile","tag-rides","tag-rodeo","tag-sports","tag-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}