How a hockey player became a professional bull riding champ

Greg Wyshynski, ESPNJan 5, 2024, 09:00 AM ET

CloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.

IT’S AN UNAVOIDABLE TOPIC for Nick Tetz when he’s hanging out at a bar.

He’s a professional bull rider. That’s a mechanical bull in the corner. How long can he last before flying off?

“It’s kind of like telling someone you’re a UFC fighter and having someone say, ‘Oh really? Go fight that guy.’ And you’re like, ‘Well no, I’m not going to go do that,'” said Tetz, a rising star in Professional Bull Riding PBR who competed in last year’s PBR World Finals.

To set the record straight: He could hang on a mechanical bull “probably for quite a while.”

Depending on his, ahem, mindset at the time.

“It depends on how many wobbly pops I’ve had that night,” he said. “I’ve been on a few of them. It’s a different vibe than riding a real animal. I usually stay on until my head starts spinning,”

Tetz’s head was spinning for a different reason about a decade ago. He was being pulled in different directions. One moment, he was a hockey player growing up in Calgary, seeing a path forward to juniors and then perhaps a pro career beyond that. The next moment he was hanging onto a steer at amateur rodeo tournaments around Alberta.

Eventually, he chose bucks over pucks.

“When I got to the age where I started to get on steers and bulls, it just kind of took over,” he told ESPN, days before a PBR tour stop in New York City. “I thought about the bull riding more than I thought about hockey. It switched directions completely.”

The 2018 PBR Canada Rookie of the Year and 2022 PBR Canada champion, Tetz said his hockey past has directly led to his current success in rodeo — as an athlete, as a teammate, and as someone who learned it’s the passion that ultimately makes or breaks a champion.

TETZ GREW UP in Calgary. He considers himself a Flames fan, but he grew up rooting for the Edmonton Oilers. He felt like he had to, as Ryan Smyth, a 15-year veteran of the team, was his cousin.

Sort of.

“My auntie married his…

Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39242706/hockey-player-quit-sport-pbr-bull-riding-champion-nick-tetz

Author : Greg Wyshynski

Publish date : 2024-01-05 13:59:38

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