BROTHERLY BONDS
In the Thomas & Mack Center this month, Brady Minor is backing into the box and looking over at someone besides his brother for the first time in 15 years.
Rewind to September. Imagine, with Riley Minor gutting it out on crutches at the final rodeo of the season, how badly Brady wanted to punch his little brother a ticket to Vegas to pay his bills. Or consider Daniel Green’s choice on day three of the ’96 NFR, when sudden pericarditis put his big brother in a Vegas hospital for what looked to be days during their best shot at a world title. Daniel could have picked up No. 16 that night—Dennis Gatz—and stayed in the average. Instead, he turned out two nights so his brother could rope when he healed up.
Blood is thicker than water. But what kind of pressure comes with that loyalty? And what is it actually like to quit your brother—or to win the world with him? We talked to several of the best brother teams in history to get the nitty-gritty.
Even though disagreements get personal with siblings, Justin Johnson says it’s an advantage to rope with your brother. After all, nobody can fine-tune their run better than a pair of guys who shared bunk beds, backgrounds and arena burgers their entire
