FORT WORTH, Texas - If Jeff Robinson looks as if he hasn'tslept, it's because he hasn't.
"I've had a sick feeling in my stomach for the last threeweeks," said the reigning two-time Stock Contractor of the Year,who is feeling overwhelming anxiety and sorrow over what could wellbe the final outing for the legendary Chicken on aChain.
This weekend's appearance in Greensboro, N.C., is rumored to beChicken's final out.
Robinson said the once-in-a-lifetime bull is in good shape,however, and if he performs as well he has throughout his career,Chicken on a Chain could possibly compete one last time in LasVegas at the World Finals.
"It's not totally out of the question," Robinson said.
Robinson purchased Chicken on a Chain in 2006. For much of theirfirst year together, Chicken on a Chain was considered mean andhard to handle. Robinson considered selling him, in fact, butinstead loaded him on his trailer and hauled him to one Touring ProDivision event after another for much of the year.
That was just start of what would soon become one of the mostprolific and memorable careers.
In 2007, Chicken won the World Champion Bull and arguably becamethe most popular bucking bull in PBR history.
That year he bucked off a career-best 94.44 percent of theriders who drew him. Of his 18 outs, 12 were at the BFTS. He wasridden only once, when JustinMcBride made the whistle for 93 points. His averagebull score was 46.188 points, with an average mark of 23.2 pointsper judge.
He's had 125 career outs - 78 of which have been at the BFTS -and holds a career average of 45.02 points. His 78 outings at BFTSevents are the most of any active bull, and eighth on the all-timelist of outs. Probullstats.com, which hasstats for 25,944 bulls, lists Chicken as the only bull with morethan 100 PBR outs whose average score is 45 points or better.
He's fourth on the list of all-time 90-point ride producers, andof his 78 outs at the BFTS he's been the high-marked bull 41 times.Thirteen times riders have won a round on him.
Renato Nunes and Chicken on a Chain nabbed11th on the all-time list of highest scores in PBR history in 2008,when they teamed for 95.75 points in the Championship Round at St.Louis. It's the third-highest score, behind scores of 96.5 and 96points.
The 12-year-old bull is in his seventh season. To put that intoperspective, in his first year on the BFTS he bucked off the likesof Cody Hart and TaterPorter.
Although every great athletic career comes to an end, Robinsonsaid it's hard not to dread the finality of this comingweekend.
"It's hard to put in words, really," he said.
Thanks to Chicken's success, Jeff Robinson Bucking Bulls quicklywent from hauling four or five bulls to 10 or 12. Two years afterbuying Chicken, he had 25 bulls and was capable of helping fill outthe pen at both a BFTS and TPD event in the same weekend.
Last year, Robinson could haul a trailer load of short-round-and Championship-Round-caliber bulls to every BFTS event withouthauling the same the load two weeks in a row.
Chicken's impact is comparable to what Ray Lewis hasmeant to the Baltimore Ravens, or athletes such as AlbertPujols and Shaquille O'Neil.
"You hear in sports where one guy carries a team," Robinsonsaid. "Well, this bull carried me. He gave me the opportunity to bewhere I'm at. Without him I wouldn't be where I'm at, nodoubt."
What has made Chicken on a Chain an undeniable fan favorite ishis sheer size, along with his athleticism and proven track recordfor success. He moves every bit of the 2,100 pounds he's estimatedto weigh.
Robinson said he's never seen a bull that size move as quick asChicken on a Chain, which is likely what caught the hearts andimaginations of PBR fans around the world. To this day, he receivesthe loudest standing ovation upon his introduction.
Robinson said the pronounced and extended applause still giveshim goose bumps today.
Although he hasn't gotten a full night's sleep in weeks,Robinson doesn't figure to get much this week either. In fact, hesaid, "I think Friday night will be one of the hardest nights I'veever had."
This past weekend, in Tampa, Fla., several bull riders talkedabout what they remember most about Chicken on a Chain and whatseparated him from other great bulls.
"You hear in sports where one guy carries a team.Well, this bull carried me. He gave me the opportunity to be whereI'm at. Without him I wouldn't be where I'm at, no doubt."
BRENDON CLARK
"I remember seeing him at some Touring Pro (Division events),early on, and he was really wild. For a bull his size,super-athletic is the best way to explain him doing it at thislevel. That's amazing. He's a bull that went for a long timewithout getting ridden, and then some of the best rides I've seenhave been from that bull. Justin McBride and RenatoNunes are two that come to mind. He was an exceptionalbull."
KODY LOSTROH
"The thing I'll remember about Chicken on a Chain is that hebrought it every time. He never had an off day, and he bucked for along, long time. There's nothing you can take away from him. He'llgo down as one of the best ones we've had. The thing about Chickenis he was big and strong and smart. I got on him three times and hegot me on the ground every time."
AARON ROY
"That was one of the biggest bulls I'd ever been on. I watched himon all his outs and then whenever I got on him, he did somethingtotally different with me. He went right with me and I wasn'texpecting it, but, yeah, he was out of character. I thought I'd getalong with him good, being he was a big bull. He was athletic foras big as he was. You expect big bulls like that to be slow andreal heavy, and he wasn't. He was fast, could move in any directionhe wanted to and in any amount of time. He was everything you lookfor in a bucking bull. He had the looks, big horns, he had theattitude and he bucked really hard. If you stayed on him, you weregoing to win the bull riding and if not, you were going to hit thedirt real fast."
ROBSON PALERMO
"I rode him, I think, two times and I have a couple scars. Oneunder my chin and one on my head, and he did that. He's kind of abig bull, he bucks and he's a good bull to get on. His horns arereally big. When you see him on the back of the chutes his body islittle and he has big horns. When I got here I saw him on theTouring Pros, and I wanted to get on him because he was a good bullfor me. He turned back to the left, but I never had a chance to geton him on the Touring Pro. When I saw him here on the Built FordTough (Series), he got so big and bucked all different. Now he'sgoing to be retired."
BEN JONES
"You'd either be 90-plus on him or he'd throw your head hard intothe ground. He was the perfect bucking bull, in my eyes. He wasn'ta little muley. He was big and had two horns as big as baseballbats, so if you were going to get him rode you had to be a bullrider. You couldn't be half-hearted. He would give it his all, likewe would give it our all, all the time. What I'll remember isJustin McBride on him. I still go home and watch that bull ride andvisualize it. In my eyes it was the greatest bucking bull and thegreatest bull rider there's ever been, and it was a clash of thetitans."
AUSTIN MEIER
"Probably one of the things I'll remember most about him is myrookie year, going to the Finals. I had him in one of the middlerounds there and, you know, back then he was just a tall,slap-sided calf. He really bucked and I dang near got him rode, anda few months after that I saw him again when I had him drawn in ashort round. He was this big solid bull that we know now. Hefrapted me harder than I've ever been frapted, and hooked me prettygood after that too. He was really, really strong; it was hard tofind a nice seat on him. He had a lot of heart. Bulls like that,they like doing their job. He was good at doing his job and hestayed healthy. He had the health and he had the heart, and he justloved bucking."
J.B. MAUNEY
"When I first saw that bull he was probably the meanest bull I hadever seen. I hung up on him a few times and that got pretty scary.He's a big ol' bull and he's been great for a long time. There arenot many bulls that can go that long, travel as many miles as hetraveled and still be that good. He'll go down as being one of thebest bulls ever. He had heart, plus he weighed about 2,000 pounds.He was huge, but he had heart and you could tell. He never missed abeat, but he might change something up - he'd go one way one weekand then he'd go the other way. You never knew what he was going todo, but he always bucked."
Follow Keith Ryan Cartwright on Twitter @PBR_KRC.