Sid Steiner had the pedigree: he was born into a Texas rodeo family that included a world-champion bull rider for a father. He also had the athleticism: he had made a name for himself as a fearless linebacker at Anderson High School in Austin. He certainly had the toughness: he had a propensity for finding the nearest physical altercation—and for ending it abruptly upon his arrival. And he ultimately proved to have the determination as well: he was hell-bent on working longer and harder than his competition to achieve his ultimate goal.
Why, then, was anyone surprised—even offended, in some cases—when Steiner took home the Wrangler National Finals 2002 world championship in steer wrestling? For starters, it probably had something to do with the fact that Sid Steiner is not your typical cowboy—never has been, never tried to be, and more than likely, never will be.
Sure, Sid is a product of the legendary Steiner Rodeo Company, founded by his great-grandfather Thomas Casper "Buck" Steiner in the early thirties. And Sid’s own father, Bobby, grew up around rodeo and earned the 1973 world championship in bull riding. But Bobby sold the rodeo company a few years later, and Sid and his brother Shane were brought up more on Little League and water sports than on calf roping or barrel racing.
It came as a little bit of a surprise, then, when Sid turned his considerable energies toward the rodeo scene after a brief college football career. The bigger surprise, though, was on the part of the rodeo establishment—the old-school cowboys weren’t exactly sure what they had on their hands in Sid Steiner. It wasn’t until Sid came along in the mid-nineties that they were exposed to this new breed of "cowboy": the wild shirts, the long hair (sometimes worn in cornrows), the tattoos, and the body piercings. Before long, Sid was dubbed the bad boy of rodeo.
But while Sid had fun living up to his rebellious image within the traditional confines of the rodeo circuit, he never lost sight of his real goal: becoming a world-class steer wrestler. He rose through the ranks quickly—rankling the old guard every step of the way, but also developing a devoted younger following—and by 2000 he was a world championship contender at the National Finals. In 2002 Sid won the event with one of the most dramatic finishes in Finals history, thus concluding one of the wildest careers in rodeo.
They Call Me Sid Rock chronicles that exciting and controversial career: the commitment and determination to make it through the early years, the continual challenges to earn his due respect—inside of the arena and out, his eventual rise to world-class prominence, and his ultimate defining moment at the 2002 Finals. It also tells of Sid’s colorful childhood, his not-so-smooth journey into adulthood, and many of the incredible tales of his family’s exploits. Sid Rock is for any rodeo fan, from the old school or the new, who can appreciate the thrill of an unbelievably wild ride.
With his long hair, wild shirts, piercings, and tattoos, Sid Steiner never really conformed to the traditional stereotype of a cowboy. His individualism only made his road to the elite class of Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association steer wrestlers more challenging and made him more endearing to his growing legion of new-school rodeo fans. Constantly forced to earn his stripes from the disenchanted members of the old guard—both inside the arena and out—Sid Rock scratched and clawed his way to respectability and then achieved his sport’s highest honor with one of the most memorable performances in rodeo history at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in 2002
