Kansas City’s professional bull riding team wants a championship — and some revenge
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Outlaws enter their fifth PBR season seeking their first PBR Teams championship.
- The 2026 season starts in Fort Collins and has 35 regular-season games.
- Outlaws return seven riders and used the No. 1 pick on Hayden Welsh to boost depth.
The Kansas City Outlaws — Kansas City’s professional bull riding team — are back in action this week as they prepare for their fifth season in the Professional Bull Riders league.
PBR is one of the fastest-growing leagues in the country. Since its inception in 2022, teams have reportedly seen a 600% surge in value. The league has inked deals with CBS Sports and Paramount+ and plans to add two more teams in 2027.
According to the Sports Business Journal, expansion teams could cost upward of $50 million.
The 2026 season starts Saturday in Fort Collins, Colorado, and consists of 35 regular-season games. Each of the league’s 10 franchises hosts a home event as they compete for the coveted championship gold buckle and a $1 million prize. The Outlaws will host the PBR’s regular-season finale on Oct 23-25 at the T-Mobile Center.
Kansas City’s team, which won a regular-season championship in 2024, is coming off a turbulent season. The Outlaws dealt with injuries to three of their top riders, including 2024 World Champion and league rookie of the year Cassio Dias, who suffered a broken femur just months into his title defense.
As a result, the Outlaws finished just 11-24, good for 8th in the conference in a season they’re eager to forget. Head coach J.W. Hart, a former world champion himself, spoke with The Star about the season’s grueling nature and how it took a toll on Kansas City’s depth in 2025.
“It was devastating to our lineup,” Hart said. “When you lose three of your best five guys and quite possibly three of the best four, it’s tough. We were just decimated with injuries, but no excuses.
“Our roster wasn’t deep enough, our bench wasn’t deep enough. We didn’t capitalize when we should have, but this year we’re healthy and determined.”
The risks and rewards of riding
Kansas City’s riders have spent the offseason in ice baths, on training tables, resting and getting back into shape away from the bulls — opportunities they don’t get much of when the season is in full swing.
Physical recuperation is often the focus, but it’s the rider’s mental health that can be most vulnerable when continuously nursing injuries.
When Dias — the 16th-ranked rider in the world — returned from the broken femur, he suffered another setback, injuring his hand during a training session. Dias rode through the pain and swelling for about eight weeks before an X-ray revealed he had a carpal bone fracture.
The 24-year-old appeared in just five events in 2025. The promising start to his career, in which he’s already earned over $2 million in winnings, has been littered with injuries. In addition to the ailments to his femur and hand, Dias has suffered back fractures, a collapsed lung, concussions and a bruised elbow.
The constant battles with injuries have taken a toll, but in his time away from the rodeo, he rediscovered who he is and leaned on his faith.
“It was a terrible year for me, but I learned a lot,” Dias said. “When I came back, I had to fight with my mind because I wanted to do great again. But it was different. I was not 100%. I learned to prepare more mentally and trust in God, because my moment will come again.”
With the physical and mental strain that come with a sport that studies say is 10 times more dangerous than football, what keeps riders coming back for more?
Koltin Hevalow, the 24th-ranked rider in the world and longest tenured Outlaw, says it’s the love of the game and a healthy reward to accompany the risk taken on every mount.
“When you do something you love, you never work a day in your life,” Hevalow said. “There’s no better feeling than getting on a bull that’s out of control and sitting right in the middle of him like it’s nothing and getting off on your feet.
“I’m just thankful that there are wonderful and expensive prizes that come with doing something that 95% of people in the world wouldn’t do.”
For Hevalow, that perspective wasn’t born out of ignorance of the dangers — it was reinforced by surviving them. The Smithville native suffered a fracture in May that, if not handled properly, could have changed his life forever.
“I had to take a month or two off,” Hevalow said about his injury. “The doctor told me it could be up to two to three months.
“He told me that if I were to get on the Bulls two weeks after it happened at the finals, I could have been paralyzed.”
Dias, Hevalow and the rest of the Outlaws are healthy and ready to bounce back from a lost season.
The pair is fueled by their own ambition — both said they aim to take home the PBR MVP this year — and a shared desire to accomplish a feat that’s eluded the team in its four years in the league.
A golden buckle.
The fifth season begins with a familiar foe
Kansas City’s pursuit of its first PBR Teams championship starts Saturday against the Austin Gamblers, the same team that ended the Outlaws’ title hopes in the 2024 semifinals after a controversial missed call.
The Gamblers advanced after one of their riders appeared to touch the bull with his free hand — an automatic disqualification under PBR rules — but no foul was called.
Hart still believes that decision cost Kansas City a championship.
“Year 3, we were regular-season champions, came in favored heavily in the finals, and with a couple of really controversial calls that I still say messed us out of a championship with video to back it up,” Hart said.
“We were supposed to move on. I have no doubt that in Year 3, had we gotten the favorable call, we’d have been in the championship game and would have walked away with that game, too. But ... calls are calls. ... We’ve got to move on.”
The Outlaws believe they’re equipped to do just that.
Kansas City returns seven riders from last season’s roster, giving the franchise a level of continuity it’s rarely enjoyed since the league’s inception. After injuries exposed the team’s lack of depth a season ago, Hart enters 2026 with a healthy lineup and renewed optimism.
The organization also invested heavily in its future during May’s draft.
With the No. 1 overall pick, the Outlaws selected Hayden Welsh, the son of seven-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier Bobby Welsh. Hart said the organization had tracked Welsh for more than a year and believes his style is tailor-made for team competition.
“He’s just got kind of an old-school body set to him,” Hart said. “When he sets, his toes are east and west, he uses spurs well, he’s got a big straight back. ... What we’ve seen out of him should translate really well into the PBR and teams.”
Kansas City followed by selecting Brazilian riders Joao Paulo Alves Velasco (4th) and Luiz Gabriel Rosa (11th), and Trent Ferreir (9th), who competed at Western Texas College.
“We’ve watched them time and time again,” Hart said. “Just their projection and the ability that they showed. We think through our developmental areas and camps and stuff they can be very, very special.”
For Hart, the formula is simple: a healthy veteran core, improved depth and a promising wave of young talent.
Now, all that’s left is to do what he believes the Outlaws were on the verge of accomplishing two years ago — bring Kansas City its first championship.
“I can’t wait to get started,” Hart said, “and show them what we’ve got.”
