FORT WORTH — A fan favorite, legendary rodeo cowboy returned to competition in Fort Worth Wednesday after a near fatal traumatic brain injury last year.
Anyone who follows rodeo knows Jake Barnes.
A lot of them named kids after him. He’s 56 now, chasing his 8th world champion team roping title.
Barnes had a shot last year until his horse fell and stepped on his head during practice for the national finals in November.
“You know the hardest part? I’ve only been released from the neurologist for 10 days now,” he said just before his event.
Barnes suffered a closed head injury, bleeding on the brain and a broken foot.
“After it happened, I got back on my horse and roped two more steers,” he said.
He doesn’t remember any of it. His doctor told him if he played football, he’d have to quit.
“I told him, 'I’m not a football player... I’m a cowboy.'”
So Barnes came to Fort Worth to start a new year of competition. He wears a brand new helmet Resistol launched just this year. It looks like a cowboy hat, but with a thick protective band above the brim. He thinks all riders should wear them.
“This is my life. This is what I’ve done all my life,” he grinned.
And when he couldn’t do it, the checks stopped coming and bills piled up.
Professional rodeo is not like other professional sports; participants can’t count on steady paychecks. So fans set up an online Jake Barnes Relief Fund. Barnes can hardly believe they’ve raised nearly $137,000 so far.
He firmly believes it’s a God thing.
“I believe you reap what you sow,” he said.
Barnes needed to do well, but he missed his first steer on Tuesday. And his second one on Wednesday.
Competing at the Fort Worth Stock Show actually cost him money -- entry fees, fuel and feed.
He’s so banged up he says he doesn’t know which leg to limp on. But he can keep on, grateful for fans to lean on, until his luck turns.
