PUEBLO, Colo. – It’s hard to imagine the PBR without Paulo Crimber.
He’s a 10-time PBR World Finals qualifier, yet his bull riding career is merely one small part of his impact on the league and the sport as a whole.
He’s been a judge. He was the Chute Boss during the 2023 Unleash The Beast season. He’s the PBR’s official translator. He was the coach of the Arizona Ridge Riders when the team launched, and this season, he will be the head coach of the newly relocated Florida Freedom.
He’s also a bull riding pioneer, the reason why Decatur, Texas, has become a home away from home for so many Brazilian bull riders.
Crimber grew up in Olímpia, a small town five hours outside São Paulo, Brazil. There were always horses and cattle around, and he’d watch American Westerns, instilling a deep love for the cowboy way of life.
When he was 7, Crimber attended a bull riding event.
“I saw a bull rider, and I was just dreaming and imagining myself doing that,” he told PBR.com last year.
At 14, Crimber competed in an amateur rodeo. By 16, he was winning professional events. When he was 18, he won the first round at the storied Barretos event, qualifying for the PBR World Finals. He was – and still is – the youngest Brazilian ever to appear at the sport’s marquee event.
He split time between Brazil and the United States for three years following his first World Finals appearance. He met his wife, Maria, in 2001. They were married later that year, and the pair settled in Texas.
Crimber would go on to qualify for the World Finals 10 times, going a career 283-for-554 (51%) and winning five events. In 2004, he finished third at the World Finals and won the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
But in 2008, everything changed. In February, in Springfield, Missouri, he broke his neck.
“I didn't have to have surgery,” Crimber said. “I was just in a brace, and at the time, I was No. 1 in the world. And I was just doing really good. I thought that year was going to be my year.”
In the five months he spent recovering at home, he and Maria found out she was pregnant with their second child, Helena. Their first, John Crimber, was 3 years old.
Crimber returned to competition in June, and disaster immediately struck again.
He ended up underneath a bull called Rough Neck, again breaking his C1, collarbone, and sternum. Doctors took bone off his hip to fuse the C1 and C2 vertebrae. He slept in a recliner for six months.
His bull riding career was over.
“That was miserable,” Crimber said. “Maria was pregnant. John was 3 years old. She has to get up every three or four hours to give me a pain medication, and has to help me shower. She has to bathe me, pretty much, and take care of John, and she’s pregnant. That was a real tough time. I had some bad thoughts about myself because I thought there would be better for them, and she helped me through that and helped me see how they couldn’t lose me, and it's just an injury, a very bad one. And she helped me through that. She made me realize, see a different way. And that's how special she is. She handled herself, pregnant with the baby, taking care of me, and she still helped me get out of that bad, dark spot. She's really special. She's one of a kind, for sure. And I couldn't see my life without her.”
Crimber used this love for his wife and kids to motivate himself to get out of bed every day, even when he was hurting. He transitioned to cowboy daywork to feed his family, breaking colts for $20 a ride.
“That’s how much they mean to me,” Crimber said. “I’ll give my life to them. I owe my life to them, also. It's a dream family to me.”
But it didn’t take long for things to change. PBR CEO Sean Gleason huddled with then-Director of Livestock Cody Lambert and SVP of Competition Jay Daugherty to give him a shot at judging. Crimber progressed so fast that he judged at the World Finals in 2010.
“It’s impressive, what he's done with his with his life and his family,” said Lambert, now the head coach of the Texas Rattlers. “His bull riding career was somewhat legendary, but it ended early, and he had to work, and he had to do other things, and he never gave up, regardless of whether he got to ride bulls anymore or not. And he worked hard, and he found his place in the sport without being a great bull rider anymore.
“Paulo’s an inspiration as well as anybody.”
Crimber briefly returned to competition in 2011 so his son could watch him ride.
Now 18 years old, John Crimber is a bull riding phenom. He finished No. 2 in the world in his rookie season on the Unleash The Beast and this weekend makes his debut in the PBR Camping World Team Series, riding for his dad on the Florida Freedom.
“He taught his son, John, to be a great young man and one of the best 18-year-old bull riders the world has ever seen,” Lambert said. “And the world has seen Chris Shivers and Justin McBride and those kind of guys, and John Crimber’s right in with those. Paulo has had more to do with that than anyone. And Paulo got to live his bull riding dream as a bull rider, and then he got to live it again as a father who taught his son.
“Paulo had one pair of jeans when he was flipping burgers and cooking because he didn't have money and had to quit school and go to work. He had one pair of jeans, and his son, by the time he's 14 years old, had a jean sponsor. As a dad, you want your kid to have more than you had, and I think Paulo's been pretty successful there.”
The Crimbers ultimately settled in Decatur, Texas. Today, nearly 50 bull riders live in the area, with dozens having stayed at the Crimber house at one time or another – always rent-free.
Thanks to his fluent English, Crimber is their translator. But that word doesn’t do the job justice. He teaches them English, shuttles them to surgery and rehab, and helps them with travel and rodeo entry fees. Maria does the same for their wives, going with them to doctor appointments and staying with them in the hospital to translate when they’re giving birth.
“Do you know how much they do for the Brazilians?” Lambert said. “Paulo and Maria, it's just crazy how much they do for all the Brazilians. Paulo ensures their kids get enrolled in school and they make it to their doctor's appointments. And if a young Brazilian gets over here and gets hurt riding bulls and has to have surgery, Paulo lines up everything for him. He helps them all.”
When Amadeu Campos Silva was killed in a bull riding accident in Fresno, California, in 2021, Crimber made the arrangements to get his body transferred back to Texas. He picked out the coffin for the 22-year-old and delivered his burial clothes.
“It was hard,” Lambert said. “And Paulo has got a sixth-grade education. He learned to speak English by watching American movies, by watching Westerns. And he's taken it a long way, and he does a lot of stuff out of the goodness of his heart. And he has a great heart. And he does a lot of things for a lot of people that he doesn't get any recognition for. He gets recognition for translating and coaching the Florida Freedom, but he doesn't get the recognition I think he deserves for all he does for the Brazilians that come to this country.”
That’ll change on July 11 at the Heroes & Legends ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Crimber will receive the coveted Ring of Honor, regarded as the highest honor a professional bull rider can receive following their retirement from competition. The Ring of Honor is presented to individuals who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the sport of bull riding, based on the core beliefs of the organization, including authenticity, toughness, respect, teamwork and professionalism.
“The Ring of Honor isn’t just about how you performed in the arena,” said J.W. Hart, 2009 Ring of Honor recipient and head coach of the Kansas City Outlaws. “The Ring of Honor is what you've contributed to the sport of bull riding. And he's got it in spades all the way around. I mean, he rode bulls great. He made the PBR World Finals. He rode bulls that were unridden. He went to the National Finals Rodeo. He won the average at the National Finals Rodeo. And now he gives back to the sport through interpretations and helping a lot of the young Brazilians get passports and visas and learn the language, and just everything he does to help get them over here and to make them feel at home when they do get here. I think he's a first ballot-er.”
While Crimber’s competitive career ended before he wanted it to, his Ring of Honor induction proves that life is what you make it. His attitude took him from being stuck in a recliner for six months to the absolute pinnacle of the sport, forever changing the landscape of the PBR.
His impact has truly been immeasurable.
“The thing that stands out to me about Paulo,” nine-time world champion Ty Murray said, “is not only was he one of the pioneers of Brazilians coming to the PBR, and a great bull rider, and a tough guy, and a guy that didn't make excuses, and a guy that went at it the right way for all the right reasons, is what a great guy Paulo is and how everybody likes Paulo. He's always got a smile, he's always positive, he always has a positive thing to say. And he loves the American way of life, the American cowboy. And he's embraced that.
“Paulo loves the sport, and he doesn't just love, say, being a rider or the accolades or the money that he’s made or that his son can make. He truly loves the sport, the lifestyle, the people, everything about it. And it's the most important thing in his life every day. And that shows.”
Photo courtesy of Todd Brewer/Bull Stock Media
