1. Adrenaline: You want to win, you are excited, you are afraid, you ride, you don't ride, you might get hurt, you do get hurt, and you end up on the dirt running from a large animal that wants to run you over. All compressed into a pinprick of time. It's like a black hole into which everything gets pulled, and then you are thrown back out of the vortex, a mortal man again. I'm not sure there's a drug in the world that has that same effect.
2. Warrior spirit: Adriano Moraes said that bull riding is "a crowd, an arena, a beast, and a man." These guys are gladiators. They want to win, they have trained to win, and they are in top physical shape. They are competitors against a worthy adversary, and the odds are against them.
3. Money: You can make a lot of money at the elite level of bull riding. You can also make nothing. But even if you're in last place and make nothing, there's still the hope and possibility that next weekend you can make more than I do in a year.
4. Lifestyle: Most of these guys grew up around this life, and the tour is a lifestyle unto itself: on the road, with the guys, wearing cowboy boots, working out, helping each other, doing what they love to do.
5. Magic: I have to think that when they find that center and successfully ride a bull, something kind of magical happens. Everything works: the crowd, the arena, the beast, and the man. For that, I'd ride bulls too.
