Published: April 24, 2009 12:08 am      

From football to bareback: Cannon's one tough guy

When Clint Cannon was a 230-pound fullback for the Texas A&M University-Commerce Lions he ran around cones and lifted weights to stay in shape.

Cannon still runs cones and lifts weights but now as a 175-pound rodeo cowboy.

The rugged workout regiment he learned as a football player has helped him rise to No. 1 in the 2009 PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) World Rankings for bareback riding. Cannon leads by more than $30,000 with his earnings of $93,837 heading into several rodeos this weekend. Cannon was to ride in Lufkin on Thursday night. He plans to ride tonight in San Jose, Calif., and then on Saturday in Corpus Christi.

“I’m having a banner year,” said Cannon by cellphone from his residence in Waller.

Cannon recently won $59,000 at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and enjoyed another big payday last weekend when he scored 85 for a ride in Red Bluff, Calif.

This year has more than made up for the 2008 rodeo season marred by a shoulder injury and a torn rotator cuff that sidelined him for eight months.

“I did a lot of thinking and a lot of rehabbing and training,” he said.

Cannon isn’t the type who enjoys sitting around. Nor does he get hurt easily.

“Clint was as tough as they come,” said Jim Phillips, who coached Cannon in football at Waller High School and is now the head football coach for the Greenville Lions. “Very dedicated. He was there every day. You aren’t going to coach many Clint Cannons in your life.”

Cannon said he loved playing for Phillips.

“Playing for Coach Phillips was a great experience,” he said. “Big Jim, he’s a good guy...He would help anybody out. You could come to him with any problem and he would help you out.”

Phillips said he’s not surprised that Cannon is enjoying a successful season on the rodeo circuit.

“He’s gone through some tough times,” said Phillips.

Phillips can’t recall Cannon missing a single workout or game during his playing career at Waller in the late 1990s. Cannon helped Waller start a long run of trips to the playoffs.

“He’s special,” said Phillips. “He’s one of those you’ll remember the rest of your life if you coach him.”

Brad Riley, who played at Waller and now coaches in Greenville, called Cannon “a leader in every sense of the word.”

“I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as him in the weight room,” said Riley. “Ever. A machine. The toughest guy I’ve ever been around.”

Cannon played two seasons of football at Stephen F. Austin University before transferring to A&M-Commerce, where he played during the 1999 and 2000 seasons under head coach Eddie Brister. Brister had been the offensive coordinator at SFA before getting the head job at A&M-Commerce.

“I did love playing for Eddie Brister,” said Cannon. “He was a guy that took me under his wing when I came to SFA.”

Cannon recalls meeting eventual NFL linebacker Jeremiah Trotter head on during one of SFA’s practices. Trotter went on to become a four-time Pro Bowl selection for the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“We ran an isolation play,” said Cannon. “One of the guards messed up. Jeremy knew exactly where we were going. I put him flat on his back (with a block). He stood up and he was so mad that a freshman put him on his back. We became buds after that.”

Blocking was Cannon’s forte in college though he ran for nearly 1,000 yards during his senior season at Waller.

“He took a lot of pride in his blocking,” said Riley.

“Sometimes in the games when we played I would point and I’d say, ‘I’m coming at you,’” said Cannon, recalling his blocking duty. “I would take the mentality of a freight train. I’d hit him (the defensive player) as hard as I could.”

Cannon carried the ball just 25 times in two seasons for the A&M-Commerce Lions, rushing for 89 yards. But he led the blocking for the Lions’ tailbacks out of the I-formation.

He proved his toughness during a game against Southwestern Oklahoma State on Sept. 30, 2000. The Lions needed help at linebacker because of injuries. Cannon played both ways that game at fullback and linebacker and also played on special teams. He didn’t miss a single down, finishing with seven tackles in his first game to ever play linebacker.

“I enjoyed playing football at Commerce and at SFA,” he said. “Football taught me a lot about discipline.”

The game of football also taught him the importance of training and agility work.

However, his transition from football player to rodeo cowboy wasn’t easy. Riley recalled watching Cannon compete in his first college rodeo.

“It didn’t look pretty at all,” said the Greenville coach. “He still kind of had the football build.

“A few months later he worked at it and here he was going to the national college finals in rodeo the same year. There’s no doubt in my mind that he has the tools to be a world champion.”

Rodeo tests his body more than football did.

“One ride makes my body feel like I’ve played an entire football game,” he said. “It just beats your body up.”

As Cannon pointed out, a football team can take a timeout to regroup but in rodeo “you’ve got no timeouts.”

“Rodeo is a huge mental game,” he said, noting the adrenaline and fear that set in before a ride. “You have to take the mentality that you are the baddest man on earth.”

Cannon compares the torque of riding a 1,300-pound bareback horse to what an unlucky passenger would feel in a car crash.

“I’ve been hit so hard by the back of the horse it knocked me out while I was riding,” he said.

Cannon, who’s 30, plans to keep riding professionally as long as his body will let him.

“I’m looking to go until I’m at least 38 or 39,” he said.

Hollywood may also be in Cannon’s future. He was recently filmed in a rodeo documentary and has been working in a feature film called “Cowboy Solitude.”

“I love the cowboy lifestyle and want to do a movie,” he said.

With his background Cannon should be well-suited for tough guy roles. On or off a horse.