Ex-NFR roping champ Skelton still having fun by winning

When Rich Skelton entered the media room at the Thomas & Mack Center after he and team roping partner Nick Sartain won their first round at the National Finals Rodeo on Tuesday night, someone jokingly said to him, "It's about time," to which Skelton replied with a straight face, "Yeah, no kidding."

Eleven years removed from winning the last of his record eight straight team roping world titles with former partner Speed Williams, the 49-year-old Skelton still expects to win every night.

"If you don't expect to have success, I think you need to retire," Skelton said.

Skelton and Sartain turned in a 3.9-second run to split the sixth-round win with Aaron Tsinigine and Ryan Motes and pocket $23,481 apiece, boosting their NFR earnings to $33,212 and their season earnings to $117,290. The victory also extended Skelton's event record for round wins to 36.

"This is fun. Winning never gets old. The money's even better," he said. "You can tell when you're getting old. It felt to me like we were 2. We'd only won about $10,000 before tonight, and with this much money up that's nothing. I'm glad to get in on some of the big action tonight."

The win was especially satisfying considering Skelton was seriously injured in a road accident May 15 in Llano, Texas, where he lives. The tractor Skelton was driving was rear-ended and tipped over by a car that had been rear-ended by a truck pulling a livestock trailer. Skelton was launched through the top of the canopy of the tractor as it was knocked on its side, and he landed on his head in a ditch about 30 feet away.

Skelton, who suffered bleeding on his brain, was airlifted to a Round Rock, Texas, hospital, where he was put in a medically induced coma.

"It was a scary deal for a couple of days," Sartain said. "After a couple days, we were thinking things were going to be all right. Prayer and positive thinking goes a long way. If you don't think it does, it does.

"He downplays it, but I was real worried. We've been friends a long time."

Said Skelton: "I just basically got a concussion out of the deal. I was hurt for about a month, and it kind of worked out. I got healed."

After waiting six weeks for the bleeding on Skelton's brain to dissipate and for him to be medically cleared, the team got back on the rodeo trail and qualified for their third straight NFR together.

Skelton said the accident made him appreciate things more.

"When something like that happens, it makes you evaluate everything," he said. "I have an 11-year-old daughter and a wife, and it makes you put everything in perspective."

Sartain, 36, was wearing a button bearing the words "Prayers for Jake Barnes" to show his support for the seven-time world champion team roper, who suffered bruising and bleeding on his brain and a broken ankle when his horse landed on him during a practice run before the NFR.

"Everybody in the rodeo industry is all good friends. You're around each other as much as your family, and I heard (Barnes) made it home," Skelton said. "His injury and my injury are kind of similar. Both of us had a little blood on the brain. Hopefully he gets healed up as quick as I did."

Barnes won his seven gold buckles with Clay O'Brien Cooper, who at 54 has won three rounds at this NFR with partner Derrick Begay to take over the top spot in the world standings from two-time defending world champs Jade Corkill of Fallon and Clay Tryan.

"Don't waste your time worrying about Clay O'Brien Cooper because he's the best there's ever been or there ever will be," Sartain said. "If he's 100, if he can still pick his shoulder up, he's gonna beat you. That's what's gonna happen."

And what about Skelton?

"Same way," Sartain said, grinning. "It's pretty awesome roping with him. I was getting out of high school when he was winning his championships. I looked up to him a lot. Now to get to be out here winning with him is kind of a dream come true for me."

* NOTES — Trevor Brazile clinched his record 13th all-around gold buckle and record 23rd career world title in style, winning the round in tie-down roping with his personal-best NFR time of 6.6 seconds, which was one-tenth of a second off Cody Ohl's NFR record of 6.5 seconds. "I'm as pumped about the 6.6 as I was the all-around championship," said Brazile, 39. "I've got my eyes on another (gold buckle). I'm thinking it's going to be a fun race in calf roping." Brazile, with $382,203 in total winnings this year, trails Tuf Cooper, his brother-in-law, by less than $9,000 in tie-down roping. ... Less than $428 separate the top three steer wrestlers in the world standings: Hunter Cure, Ty Erickson and Clayton Hass, who won the round with a 3.5-second run.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow him on Twitter: @tdewey33