ARLINGTON, Texas – Delbert Nuse immediately pulled out his cell phone and frantically tried to call the recently crowned 10-time Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger as the crowd inside AT&T Stadium roared to life.
Newly minted two-time World Champion Bull Smooth Operator was on the 160-by-72-foot jumbotron, and Nuse had tears rolling down his face during the final day of the 2020 PBR World Finals.
Smooth Operator’s 2.65-second buckoff of Ryan Dirteater during the championship round was enough to hold off 2019 ABBI Classic Champion Chiseled for the 2020 YETI World Championship and $100,00 in a race that came down to the final outs of the season.
The 10-year-old bovine beast was scored 46.25 points to cap off a historic season as he became the oldest back-to-back YETI World Champion Bull in PBR history.
Smooth Operator concluded the 2020 season with a 46.13-point World Champion Bull average to edge No. 2 Chiseled (46.03) in a fiercely competitive World Champion Bull race.
“I’ve got to call Chad,” Nuse told himself.
He jumped off the back of the bucking chutes and attempted to navigate his way through the backpens for a moment of privacy.
“We’re both in tears,” Nuse said as the droplets began to roll underneath his face covering. “I can’t believe it happened. Back-to-back.
“I didn’t know if I had it in me to make Smooth Operator do it, truthfully. It’s a special moment, where we could take a bull like that, of that age, and still compete to be the best in the world. It’s just unbelievable.”
Berger was already wiping his own tears away when he answered his phone from his home office in Mandan, North Dakota, 1,200 miles away.
The 2020 Stock Contractor of the Year had seen on CBS Sports Network that Smooth Operator had become the oldest back-to-back and two-time YETI World Champion in PBR history.
“That’s just so amazing,” Berger told PBR.com via phone late Sunday night. “That’s why I got so emotional. Here’s this old bull that, when he was 5 years old, I think he was the rankest bull I’d ever seen, and he got hurt (in 2015) with what could have been a career-ending injury, really. He severely hurt his back and we did not know if he’d ever buck again. Then he breaks a kneecap (in 2016) and is out for basically half of another year.”
Smooth Operator qualified for the 2016 PBR World Finals despite missing the first half of the season, but he no longer looked like the World Champion Bull contender he was previously.
Berger and his team at Berger Bucking Bulls worked Smooth Operator back to full health by 2017, but it wasn’t until last season in which Smooth Operator miraculously returned to championship contention, winning the 2019 World Championship with a 46-point World Champion Bull average.
“That bull has won two world titles just with the heart,” Berger said. “It’s all heart. That bull has got the biggest heart to keep doing what he does. He just reminds me of an old campaigner that knew what he had to do to win. He came there, knew just what he had to do. He never got excited, never got nervous. He just come and did his job. That’s the best way to explain it. That old bull just knew what he was there for.”
Smooth Operator concluded 2020 15-2 on the premier series with a 45.50 average bull score.
“That bull loves a big stage,” said Nuse, echoing Berger’s sentiments about Smooth Operator’s heart. “He loves showing out on a big stage.”
The seven-time PBR World Finals qualifier’s 46.13-point World Champion Bull average, a bull’s top eight regular-season outs and two out at the World Finals, is actually higher than his 46-point championship score from last year.
“He earned it again, and he did his job,” PBR Director of Livestock Cody Lambert said. “That is what it took. At the beginning of the week, I thought Chiseled was going to win it, and at the beginning of the day today I thought Smooth Operator was going to win it.”
Smooth Operator is the fifth back-to-back PBR World Champion Bull. He joins SweetPro’s Bruiser (2016-2018), Bushwacker (2013-2014), Little Yellow Jacket (2002-2004) and Dillinger (2000-2001). Smooth Operator becomes one of six World Champion bulls with multiple world titles. (Bones is the only other bull not mentioned above to have won two or more world titles).
“When he’s 9 years old and 10 years old, and still competing like this, and still the best in the world, that is the best thing in the world,” Nuse said.
Nuse was the man Berger entrusted to help propel Smooth Operator to a historic and second consecutive World Championship as he was not able to be in attendance at the PBR World Finals because of personal reasons.
Berger has known Nuse for almost 20 years, and this is Nuse’s fourth season working for the reigning Stock Contractor of the Year.
“Well, I said I was nervous not being there, but I didn’t give him no pressure,” Berger said. “I just said, ‘Do what you do. You know how to do it.’ I just tried to give him all the confidence in the world. You can’t question a guy or tell him what to do. That might make him more nervous. So I just kind of said, ‘You’ve been doing this. You know how to do it. Just do it like you’ve been doing it. It’ll be just fine.’ It’s a lot for him, but he handled it well. I couldn’t be prouder of a guy than him right now.”
Nuse was nervous throughout the 2020 PBR World Finals, joking that he thought he was going to throw up during the national anthem Sunday the more he thought about what was at stake for Smooth Operator.
The pressure was only amplified after Smooth Operator’s 46-point bull score for bucking off Dener Barbosa in 3.57 seconds in Round 1 on Thursday night had him up by 0.75 points in the YETI World Champion Bull race heading into the final day of the 2020 season.
“It’s more pressure just to keep it,” Nuse said on Sunday morning. “Truthfully I’d be tickled pink if both of us could split it. Both bulls have been swapping all year long, so at the Finals, if we could tie each other, heck, that’d be good for me. I’d be happy with it.”
Nuse called Berger around 10:30 on Sunday morning to check in, and Berger reassured him that Smooth Operator would make them both proud.
“Good luck. It’s in your hands,” a confident Berger said.
That trust and responsibility goes a long way, Nuse said.
Nuse filled in for Berger during the summer months when Berger was recovering from two open-heart surgeries, and a third procedure for a pacemaker.
“Chad’s one of them bosses that he hires you because he knows what you’re doing,” Nuse said. “So he kind of steps back and lets us do our thing, and he’s always real kind about it. He’s always complimenting you about how good everything looks or what’s going on or whatever we’re doing that day. He’s a great guy to work for.”
That didn’t mean things were not severely stressful Sunday evening.
Nuse had just seen Smooth Operator erupt out of the bucking chutes inside AT&T Stadium to dismantle Ryan Dirteater in a quick 2.65 seconds.
In the waning moments, it was hard to determine from the back of the chutes what Smooth Operator had scored.
Was the out going to be enough to create further distance between himself and Chiseled in the 2020 YETI World Championship race?
What was the bull score?
Nuse’s mind was racing. He glanced up at the scoreboard hoping to see a bull score, but the PBR was celebrating the final out of Dirteater’s career instead.
He then pulled out his cell phone and frantically scrolled down the daysheet on PBR.com to see what Smooth Operator had scored.
46.25 points.
Dirteater, meanwhile, tipped his hat to Smooth Operator.
“That was special, getting on the bull that won the world on my last bull,” Dirteater said. “Chad Berger has done great. All of his team has done a great job with his bucking bulls. Smooth Operator is a two-time world champ. That is pretty special. I know I didn’t ride him, but my career has been great. I put my name Dirteater in the history books regardless.”
Back in North Dakota, Berger anxiously waited to see what 2019 ABBI Classic Champion Chiseled would do next on CBS Sports Network.
He was ecstatic with his veteran bull’s outing. However, he knew the youthful Chiseled would not go down without a fight.
The 58-year-old then sat back and watched 2018 Rookie of the Year Keyshawn Whitehorse ride Chiseled for a sensational 93.25 points, adding more uncertainty to the World Champion Bull race.
Chiseled was only marked 45.25 points, and the championship was officially Smooth Operator’s.
“Chiseled is a great bull,” Berger said. “Smooth Operator just did what he had to do to beat him, and he beat him fair and square. The only thing wrong with Chiseled is he ain’t mine. That’s all I can say. He’s a great bull, and it was a dogfight from January 1 to November 15. It was a dogfight. Them two bulls battled it out everywhere they went.”
Smooth Operator (Dakota Rodeo/Julie Rosen/Clay Struve/Chad Berger) tied with his traveling partner I’m Busted as co-bulls of the PBR World Finals as both bulls finished with a two-out bull score total of 92.25 points. I’m Busted (Dakota Rodeo/Chad Berger/Clay Struve/Ken Barnhardt) bucked off Daylon Swearingen with ferocity on two different occasions at the World Finals (Round 2 & Round 5).
“He’s got my number, and I am going to get him,” Swearingen said. “He is a great young bull that has really matured since the first time I got on him in June at the team challenge.”
Berger and his partners earned $25,000 for winning Bull of the Finals.
“That’s pretty awesome to come in there and have two bulls be the best two bulls there,” Berger said. “It was pretty amazing. But that little I’m Busted, he’ll be in the conversation next year for Bull of the Year. He’s just that kind of bull, and was raised by (1996 PBR World Champion) Owen Washburn and his son.”
It was an all-around day of accolades for Berger, his partners, as well as his family.
Beyond the World Champion Bull title and Bull of the Finals, Berger was named the 2020 Stock Contractor of the Year via a vote of the league’s top bull riders.
“I couldn’t do this without my family always being behind me,” Berger said. “Clay Struve, Julie Rosen, Ken Barnhardt, all my partners. Without them, and my health, there’d be no possible way you’d be talking about me.”
Berger has now won the past seven consecutive Stock Contractor of the Year titles, and it extends Berger’s all-time record to 10 overall.
“I’m so thankful that the PBR worked so hard to make this year go, to even have a chance at winning Stock Contractor of the Year,” Berger said. “If there was an award for Commissioner of the Year in all of sports, it would be a landslide victory for Sean Gleason. He refused to quit, and got his team rallied behind him, and that’s a big feat in itself.
“I’m just thankful. When I set my goals and decided PBR is where I wanted to be, my goal was to win the Stock Contractor of the Year. To win it 10 times was never a goal, but it was something that, once you win it, you crave it and you want to win it again. I’ve always stayed focused. I’ve never backed down. I’ve always stayed very focused on the prize. I’ve always tried to be competitive, and it paid off.”
Now the question becomes if Smooth Operator has one more year left in him.
Is it possible Smooth Operator can join Bushwacker, Little Yellow Jacket and Bruiser as three-time World Champions?
Berger says he won’t rule out a full-time run in 2021 for Smooth Operator.
“You’re going to see him for sure in January some time, and we’ll see how he does and how he feels,” Berger concluded. “That’s the same approach I went last year after the 2019 World Finals. I told you I wasn’t sure. I think in Chicago, we went there and he was 46.75, and I thought, ‘Well, he don’t want to quit yet.’
“He’ll let me know when he wants to quit.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media