LAS VEGAS – Bradlee Miller barely cracked a smile.
His head tilted toward the right, the pain resonating from his neck and shoulder was visible to everyone who saw him. His Monday night ride caused the issue, originally diagnosed as a burner, a pinched nerve in the neck. An MRI taken Tuesday was inconclusive, so Miller rode again.
He may be in pain, but he didn’t show it for that 8 seconds he was in the arena during Tuesday’s sixth go-round of the National Finals Rodeo. He matched moves with Harper & Morgan Rodeo Co.’s Sippin Firewater for 87.5 points to finish second and pocket another $26,624.
“Cole Franks actually had that horse at his house for a long time before it went on the truck with Harper & Morgan Rodeo Co., and he showed me a few tricks on how to get her to settle down,” said Miller, who has earned just shy of $145,000 in six nights in Las Vegas. “The only problem with that horse is she can get a little antsy and want to be a goofball and buck in the chute. I just scratched her under the chin, and it chilled her out.”
It worked, and Miller increased his 2024 salary to $282,114. He is third in the world standing and just $30,000 behind the leader, fellow Texan Rocker Steiner.
“It would have been a lot more fun if I was completely healthy,” said Miller of Huntsville, Texas. “I have some stuff going on between my neck and my shoulder in my riding arm, and it definitely makes it a lot more of a fight than it should have been.
“I feel like I’m up for the fight. Whenever you enter the bareback riding, you have to be.”
In the interim, he will continue to seek treatment from the trainers and doctors in the Justin Sportsmedicine room at the Thomas and Mack Center. The Justin crew works with rodeo athletes all year and have specialists to help with all sorts of injuries. The plan is to continue on for the final four nights of the 2024 campaign and see how everything adds up.
“That’s more money than I’ve ever seen before,” Miller said. “It’s unreal how much this rodeo pays. I think $140,000 during the regular season seems like a lot of money, but by the time you have to charter planes and do all the traveling we do, there’s not as much left over as most people would figure.
“To be able to come here for 10 days and make some money, it’s definitely a lot more profitable.”