WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis had slipped out of the Carolina Cowboys locker room Friday night to escape the beats being dropped by DJ Hek Yeh.
Yes, the Cowboys had a personal DJ in their locker room to begin their inaugural homestand Cowboy Days at LJVM Coliseum…
“That’s not really my scene,” Davis said in laughter, while inside the locker room Boudreaux Campbell was throwing his hands up in the air and letting them stay there (like he just don’t care.)
Davis then turned around in the hallway to see Carolina Cowboys operator Richard Childress walking over.
“There’s my hero,” Childress said with a big grin. “I still remember seeing you ride in Phoenix a few years ago, and you stuck it on one. I am so proud to have you on our team.”
Davis spearheaded the Cowboys to a victory Friday night by riding Happy Gambler for 88.25 points and Carolina never looked back as they picked up their fifth win in a row.
However, Davis almost was never a Carolina Cowboy for the inaugural PBR Team Series.
The 28-year-old had been pretty sure he was going to retire from professional bull riding and trade in his bull rope for a CBS microphone back in May.
Davis was amidst a six-month recovery from not one, but two left shoulder surgeries dating back to injuries (torn rotator cuff, labrum, broken shoulder capsule) accrued on Jan. 30, which wiped out his Unleash The Beast season.
Therefore, Davis decided to even give his two bull ropes to a pair of kids in Waxahachie, Texas, a few weeks after the 2022 PBR World Finals in May when he and Mason Taylor were bucking some bulls in a practice session for some local kids on a Thursday afternoon.
Taylor, though, then realized maybe his mentor and good friend actually may not be done riding bulls after all.
“He got pretty emotional when that happened,” Taylor recalled Friday night following the Cowboys 261.5-0 victory over the Missouri Thunder. “Then a week or so later he called me and said, ‘I got the fear of missing out and may need a rope.’”
Davis admits it was a range of different emotions as he weighed his future.
The seven-time World Finals qualifier had always been a fan of PBR-team formatted events, and his individual popularity soared when he led Team USA to an unexpected gold medal at the 2017 Global Cup in Edmonton.
But was Davis ready to try to lead a new set of men to victory in PBR Teams?
“I was at a point where I was ready to be done and going to the TV and thought my career was going down a new path,” Davis said. “I felt like it was over, and it was. I didn’t want to have to look at my ropes so I figured I would give them to somebody who could use them. I thought, ‘Hell this it.’
“Then sometimes you have to listen to what your heart tells you and I had to go find a bull rope and luckily Mason still kept one. I got my bull rope back and have to put it to good use.”
It would have been natural for Davis to be somewhat rusty for Carolina. Davis has only been on a handful of practice bulls since getting injured in Sacramento, California.
Instead, Davis looked close to flawless.
“Just like a bike,” Davis said. “That is a good bull. Most videos we watched on him he went right, but we knew he could go left so I didn’t put all my eggs in one basket and was able to make it happen. It was huge. I knew that was going to be a good bull, and he was really better than I thought he was going to be, an easy one to come back on and he was pretty solid.”
Taylor was thrilled when he was part of a draft night trade that sent him to Carolina as he knew there was a good chance that if Davis decided to ride in Teams, he would be selected by the Cowboys in the Supplemental Draft.
Now Taylor is riding shotgun with Davis, 2022 World Champion Daylon Swearingen and the rest of the Cowboys.
Carolina was already a strong team without Davis. Now, the No. 2 team in the league (9-5) could be ready to run down the No. 1 ranking from Arizona (10-4) on Saturday night when the two teams square off at Cowboy Days (6:45 p.m. ET).
“Man, when you get Cooper back, Cooper is a momentum-giver to everybody,” Taylor said. “Even during the regular season, when Cooper rides, it especially fires me up because we are so close. It does nothing but good things for the team.
“Cooper is captain America and he is freaking awesome.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media