LAS VEGAS – On Saturday night at the 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series Championship in T-Mobile Arena, newly crowned regular-season MVP John Crimber rode Mo Money for 89.75 points.

After the Florida Freedom superstar celebrated on the dirt, he turned to the chutes and waved goodbye to the Texas Rattlers.

His ride had been the nail in the coffin for the defending Teams Champions, as the Freedom walked off the Rattlers, 349.25-261.

It sent the Freedom sailing into Championship Sunday.

“Man, I feel amazing,” head coach Paulo Crimber said. “This team, I feel like we put a really strong, cool team together. I didn’t have any big names. I still don’t. John is probably the biggest, and he’s becoming a great leader. The energy, you can feel it. It’s something amazing that I’ve never seen before.”

The game was a slugfest right from the start, and Texas led after the game’s first four outs. Alex Cerqueira led off for Florida with 83.75 points on Mama’s Boy, but Joao Lucas Campos bucked off Lever Action in an agonizing 7.96 seconds. The Rattlers were 2-for-2 to start the game with scores from Brady Fielder and Daniel Keeping.

“Campos kind of gave up at the end,” Crimber said. “The bull got a little bit of him at the end. And then nobody let it down.”

Indeed, Yan Victor Santos Cunha rode American You for 87.25 points, and Thiago Salgado chipped in 88.5 points on Grey Fox before the younger Crimber finished things off.

“When Campos went down, the other boys didn’t care,” the elder Crimber said. “They didn’t let that affect them. They came back and got the energy back up to positive, and they kept going, kept going, and finished off as we did. That’s the best way to do it. I couldn’t be more proud and blessed to have a team like that and be part of that team like I am. It’s been a blessing, for sure.”

He’s particularly proud of his son, who’s followed up his No. 2 finish in the 2024 world title race with a debut Teams season for the ages. John is now 28-for-42 (66%) for the Freedom during his MVP campaign.

“He’s the youngest in the locker room, but he’s the biggest leader I’ve ever seen,” Paulo said. “His attitude, the way to pull the heat to him and finish his job, and to do what he did and keep the team together.”

John may be the youngest in the locker room at just 19 years old, but the whole Freedom squad is youthful. They play soccer in the locker room before events to loosen up, tossed John in the air when he clinched the MVP award, and are generally a rowdy bunch, always having a good time.

Their coach thinks that’s been paying off in the arena.

“The oldest guy I have is 31 years old, Alex,” Crimber said. “And I think, when you put a bunch of young kids together like that, they just don’t care. They want to have fun and do what they love, which is ride bulls.”

The No. 3 Freedom have ridden bulls better than almost anybody else, finishing the regular season with an aggregate score second only to the No. 1 Kansas City Outlaws. They’ve also ridden at least three bulls in 11 of their last 13 games, which includes two in the postseason. On Friday night in Las Vegas, they downed the No. 8 New York Mavericks, 262.75-178.5.

Yet Florida still felt like the underdog to the No. 4 Rattlers, the defending Champions, who had won seven of their last eight games and played beneath their Championship banner hanging from the T-Mobile Arena rafters.

“I felt like the whole year we’ve been the underdog because people thought I didn’t have any big names on paper, and they felt like we ain’t going to be up to the task,” Crimber said. “As the events come along, and we got everybody in and stepped up and did some good work and finished third, everybody said, ‘Wait a minute. They’re for real.’ We won seven or eight games back-to-back, and that’s something that made guys start looking at us differently.”

Now, the Freedom prepare for their biggest test yet – Championship Sunday, where they’ll take on the No. 2 Carolina Cowboys, who advanced to the semifinals via Saturday night’s Last Chance Game.

Action begins at 3 p.m. ET on CBS and 4 p.m. ET on Merit Street.

“We’re doing the same thing we’ve been doing – just praying, giving all the glory to God, and putting it in his hands because he’s the one that made all this happen,” Crimber said. “Without God, we could not be here or be doing what we love doing. And just do our part. That’s the only thing I tell the boys – God blessed us to do what we love, but we have to do our part. That’s the only thing I ask them. Just don’t get comfortable. Work harder every time to get better every time, because every one of you guys, and even me, can be better tomorrow. That’s what we look for every time.”

With just four teams remaining, including the top two seeds, Florida is still something of an underdog pick to win.

But that’s all a part of Crimber’s plan.

“I like to be the underdog, because when you’re the underdog, that means they don’t pay much attention to you,” Crimber said with a grin. “When they do, it’s too late.”

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media