November 10, 2001:

The PBR Finals didn't go so great for me this year. I had all good bulls but one, and ironically that's the one I rode. I was 90.5 points on my second bull, Roy Hunnicutt's Q-Ball, and split fifth in the second round. It was a bad time to be out of the groove, but that's just the way it went.

Adriano Moraes won the world championship, and my hat's off to him. The way I see it, Adriano beat me because he rode better than me this year. It was close - there was less than one percent difference between the riding percentages of the top three guys. Adriano's success rate was 68.5 percent, mine was 67.6, and Justin McBride's was 66.7.

It was a great race, and I was happy to be a part of it. I try to win first every time I nod my head, so I wish I'd have won it. I've been runner-up three straight years. But I'm happy for Adriano, because he deserved to win it. That's what's so great about the PBR. The bulls are so outstanding at every event that whoever makes the whistle the most wins. That's as fair a bottom line as you can have in this sport.

I ended up with almost $47,000 at the Finals between the $30,000 reserve world champ's Bud Light bonus, winning about $5,000, the $5,000 qualifer's bonus and about $6,700 from the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. 90-Point Club for 12 90-point rides this year. It's nice to have a good year and a bad four days and still come out pretty good. I've won $255,356 in the PBR so far this year. One of our goals is to reward the most consistent guys. That's the way it should be, and that's the direction we're going.

The PBR's first Bud Light World Challenge is right around the corner, Nov. 24-25 in Austin, Texas, and I'm really looking forward to that. The best bull riders from the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Mexico are going to face off against the best bulls there are, and we're going to do it prime time live on NBC on the 25th.

What a huge opportunity for the PBR. Network television is a big step toward Major League sports status, and this event will bring bull riding to the world. I look at it as a chance to not only make this sport better for our fans - it also puts it out there for people who aren't familiar with our sport. It'll show the whole world what a cool thing we've got.

After Austin I'm headed back out to Las Vegas for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, where I'll be commentating on the ESPN telecast again. I'll also be writing my daily "Ty Murray NFR Report" again during the NFR, which this year runs Dec. 7-16. That'll be posted on the PRCA's website, prorodeo.com, and right here at tymurray.com.

I'll let you know how it all goes in my next update. In the meantime, have a Happy Thanksgiving.