Justin McBride Has Built PBR Teams’ Gold Standard

The Nashville Stampede coach became the first in league history to win multiple championships by turning toughness, accountability and a little cowboy zen into a team-building formula that works – in English and Portuguese.

Justin McBride, Stampede during Day 3 of the PBR Teams Championships Event. | Bull Stock Media

If Tony Robbins and Vince Lombardi had a baby and put him in a denim shirt and cowboy hat, something like Justin McBride might emerge. 

Like the greatest coaches in any sport, McBride finds ways to say and do the things that inspire his guys to jack their level of toughness and performance when it’s win or go home.  

In PBR Teams, the season’s ultimate day of reckoning was Sunday in Las Vegas. When his Nashville Stampede rode four bulls to take down the Arizona Ridge Riders in the title game, after dispatching the Texas Rattlers with a three-score semifinal outing earlier, McBride made history as the first coach to win multiple team championships.

It’s hard to argue against Justin McBride as the best coach in the five-year old league. When another coach wins a second championship, the debate can begin.

But McBride would be the first to say this is no individual feat. The guys wrapping their hands in the bull rope are the ones who get it done, of course. And in the practice pen, locker room and the bucking chutes, McBride has crucial help from assistant coach Silvano Alves.

Silvano Alves | Bull Stock Media

The Stampede fielded seven Brazilian starters in the unique 7-on-7 title game format. All seven only speak Portuguese. Alves, who celebrated the team’s 8-second rides in the bucking chutes with more unbridled gusto than during any of his three individual championships, is essential to translating McBride’s brand of never-give-up cowboy zen.

On Sunday that meant not getting ahead of the moment.

“We were focused before the game on not worrying about the end result,” McBride said on the dirt in a champagne-soaked Stampede jacket.

“We were more focused on just being grateful for the opportunity to have a chance to do something special. You know, most people never get a chance to do anything great in their lives. These guys got themselves in a position to do something great, and they lived in the moment and wrote their own history.”

The Stampede won the league’s first title in 2022 by getting hot at the right time after a long, frustrating regular season. They finished last in the standings at 7-20-1 but then launched a historic worst-to-first run through the playoffs, defeating the top three seeds to claim the inaugural PBR Teams Championship.

The Stampede opened the 2026 season with confidence and swagger, going 7-1. In mid-September they were 16-6. But they went cold, losing 10 of their last 13 games, and finished the season 19-16, good for No. 3 seed and a Friday night bye.

“You know (in five years) it’s been a wild ride. We’ve been at the top; we’ve been at the bottom,” McBride said. “We were the first team to ever win the Teams championship, and we came from the bottom to do that out here. We’ve had some rough years, some good peaks and valleys. This year we had not a great year but a good year. But you could see that the boys were building something special, because they cared about each other. They held each other accountable. They did the hard things. They had the hard conversations. And it paid off for them.”

During Nashville’s inaugural championship run, McBride’s fire-and-brimstone pep talks in the arena hallways became a defining feature of PBR’s playoff coverage.

But McBride, born in Texas and raised in Nebraska, is more than a fiery motivator. He is a pragmatic, demanding coach who tells it like it is – without sugarcoating or coddling.

He combines elite competitive experience as a two-time World Champion who battled through significant injuries, a deep technical understanding shaped by a ten-year pro career followed by time in the booth as a CBS color commentator – when his ride breakdowns felt like lessons at a bull-riding school – and an unwavering emphasis on mental toughness and grit.

As a rider, McBride walked the talk. Physical trauma was a state of mind to be ignored. During his second title run in 2007, just weeks before the end of the season, he severely dislocated his free-arm shoulder in Mexico. The injury caused extensive ligament damage and a torn rotator cuff. McBride skipped immediate surgery, bit the bullet and finished the season. Then, two days before the 2007 PBR World Finals, he was diagnosed with viral meningitis and hospitalized. McBride would compete, and with a monster 92.25-point score on Camo, he sealed the 2007 World Championship.

Between McBride and Alves, there are five individual gold buckles. Both know what it takes to deliver when the pressure is the highest.

“It’s a red-line adrenaline blast every single time, and you’ve got to be able to control that because as crazy as this sport is there is a method to the madness, and you gotta be able to think clearly and react throughout the course of a great ride,” McBride said.

The Stampede were able to jump to a No. 1 ranking early this season fueled by Rogério Venâncio, who started 6-for-8, and Daniel Feitosa, a reliable middle-of-the order contributor. Alan de Souza was a consistent lead-off rider, and Riquelmi Silva closed out five games this season with dramatic, walk-off winning rides.

Daniel Feitosa attempts to ride Kelly & Cami Heath / McCoy Rodeo’s Tulsa Time | Bull Stock Media

Sunday’s championship win mirrored the season in showcasing the team’s balanced Brazilian core rather than one superstar. Alan de Souza led off with a massive 91.30-point ride. Dependable Daniel Feitosa recorded 88.75 points in the second. Allison de Souza, Alan’s brother, added a solid 87.90 points. Gustavo Luiz da Silva tacked on a score of 88.5.

McBride’s approach hasn’t changed in five years of team bull riding. He looks for tough, committed riders eager to get better. He once said, “If you smash your thumb hammering nails, you can go off and cry about it or keep hammering nails; I’m looking at the guys who keep hammering.”

Alan de Souza, Alisson De Souza, Stampede, Daniel Feitosa, Riquelmi Silva during Day 3 of the PBR Teams Championships Event. | Bull Stock Media

McBride is a proud guy. He relishes the title of Champion. But the coach is happiest for the group of men who were elite when they had to be to conclude a 38-game season that began in July at the top of the mountain.

“This is something that will never be taken away from them right here,” he said. “We don’t know what the future holds, but this moment right here these boys will have forever. They were the best team in the world this season. That will never be taken away from them, and I’m very proud of them. the belt buckles, those things don’t mean anything to me. They really don’t.

“But a group of young men coming together, sticking with each other through thick and thin, loving each other and pushing each other and holding each other accountable. All the work they put in that nobody sees. To have a chance to write their own story – that’s what it’s about to me.

“When they’re old, fat men, this is what they’re going to remember. That belt buckle will be tarnished, the money will be spent, but this memory they made with their teammates will last forever.”