Think of Stran Smith like Brett Favre, later in his storied NFL career.
Will he come back? Won’t he? Make up your mind, gunslinger!
Smith, a 43-year-old tie-down roper, is the same way.
He also wears the same jeans.
“I have more Wrangler jeans than I can wear in a lifetime, probably,” Smith said, laughing.
Favre is a spokesperson for Wrangler, and Smith has long been a model for them.
“I’ve done a lot for Wrangler,” he said at La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros on Monday. “I guess I was in the right place at the right time, and had the right look they liked. It’s been good.”
And for Smith, life’s been good.
That is, because he thought he almost lost it. When he was 32, Smith suffered a stroke. He remembers it vividly.
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He was talking with a friend when, all of a sudden, it felt like he was slurring his words. He asked the friend if it sounded like that. He said no. Smith tried asking again, but nothing came out the second time.
No sound, not even a whisper. So he rushed to a nearby hospital — he was home in Childress, Texas — and the doctor asked what happened. Smith pointed to his mouth, because he couldn’t talk.
“I had to write it,” he said.
He later found out it was a result of Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), the same heart disease that former UA football legend Tedy Bruschi suffered. Basically, most people have a flap that closes over two chambers of the heart when they’re born, but Smith’s never did.
It was 48 hours before he was able to talk again.
“I had a doctor tell me my career was over with,” he said. “I was fine with that as long as I was going to live.”
Added Tuf Cooper, his nephew and a fellow tie-down roper: “I remember everything. (Smith) was ... on the verge of becoming a world champion, and then (the stroke) happened. It’s like all that gets taken away. But, his life is still here.”
Luckily, after a successful surgery a month later, Smith was back in Nampa, Idaho, competing. He didn’t win, but he placed.
Five years later, he won that elusive world title.
“He won it at 38,” said Cooper, who recorded a 10.4-second run on Monday. “How about that?”
Smith competed Monday, but he wasn’t able to tie his calf. But, he still smiled, ear to ear.
He’s survived a stroke, a shoulder tear and a broken pelvis, and is still alive to tell the tale. And, more importantly, Smith is still there for his wife and three kids.
“There’s been two to three times the doctor has told me I shouldn’t do this anymore,” Smith said.
Brent Lewis knows Smith as well as anyone.
He’s a retired tie-down roper now, but Lewis was there with Smith in junior rodeo, college, and then the pros.
“He’s a sissy,” Lewis said, laughing. “We’re all the same age and you think that (the stroke) can’t happen to you. It just brings it close to home that you realize none of us are bullet-proof. That’s just the way life is.
“He grew up,” Lewis added, smiling, “but now he’s getting too old to do it.”
So, that begs the question — when will Smith finally call it quits? When will he be “too old”?
Favre was 42 when he stopped and, like Favre, there’s some indecisiveness with Smith. He’ll rodeo until the end of 2014, at least, for his sponsors. But who knows beyond that?
“I’m healthy now, I feel good. Hopefully I’ve got all the injuries behind me,” he said. “It’s year to year for me.
“Sometimes, in rodeo, you have a lot of hours behind the wheel to reflect and look back and see how fast time’s gone by,” Smith added. “But I’ve had opportunities to be very blessed in a lot of ways. I’m fortunate for everything I’ve been able to do.”
