Pittsburgh Falls for Bull Riding, Led by the Steeler Cowboy Brett Keisel

Pittsburgh Steeler and Super Bowl Champion Brett Keisel is much more than just a football superstar. He has an incredible heart and has become a local legend.
Brett Keisel seen on the back of the chutes cheering on cowboys.
Brett Keisel seen on the back of the chutes cheering on cowboys. / PBR

Brett Keisel may be instantly recognizable for his wild beard, but the former Pittsburgh Steeler will be best remembered for the goodness from his heart. 

The two are connected. Shaving for a cause, Keisel has raised $1 million for UPMC Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital. 

It’s hard to find someone in this sports-crazed town not familiar with the popular ten-year run of “Shear da Beard” or the never-say-quit teammate beneath the glorious thicket of facial bush, a defensive end from BYU drafted in the last round of the NFL draft in 2002, who worked his butt off, proving he belonged with the big boys, and then some.

Keisel spent his entire 13-year NFL career with the Steelers, winning two Super Bowls along with the affection and respect of a hard-nosed city. 

The championship rings, coupled with a propensity to jump into action for kids in need, turned Keisel into a larger-than-life local legend. 

Keisel with Children's Hospital patient.
Keisel with Children's Hospital patient. / Andrew Giangola

Last Friday, his heart again opened to kids dealt an unfair hand, as he visited what he called “one of my favorite places on the planet where miracles happen daily.”

The world-renowned hospital to which Keisel lends his heart and facial hair, which he simply calls “Children’s,” will not deny care to any family lacking financial means. 

The former lineman was joined at Children's by a group of comparatively diminutive bull riders from the Arizona Ridge Riders, their coach Colby Yates, and team General Manager Casey Lane. 

With Nick Tetz, a former rising hockey prospect from Calgary turned pro bull rider, Keisel appeared on a closed-circuit morning talk show pumped into the children's rooms, then met individually with the kids, posing for photos, cracking jokes, and turning frightened faces into crinkle-eye smiles. The bull riding team had adopted Keisel as their Honorary Coach for that night’s game held during PBR’s debut in Pittsburgh. 

“Bull riding is a suspension of fear for 8 seconds,” team GM Lane said. “These kids have to suspend their fear a lot longer than that. It’s our honor to come try to lift their spirits for a few hours.”

Check presentation at Children's Hospital
Presentation to Children's Hospital. / Jenna Morr

At 6’ 5” 285 pounds, Keisel’s hulking stature belies his jovial nature. When his beard was reaching its full potential as a veritable mongoose hanging off his chin, team owner Dan Rooney summoned him for a “what the hell is that?” chat.

Keisel had started the cough drop-box worthy beard when inspired by the Pittsburgh Penguins 2009 Stanley Cup. Superstitious hockey players stop shaving during the playoffs. Keisel did the same, and his Steelers were winning.

But he knew the owner's question had only one answer and politely replied to Mr. Rooney that if it was bad for the club, he’d lose the beard. Rooney looked up at a mountain of sheepish humility and said, “You look like Santa Claus. Everyone loves Santa Claus. Keep it.” 

The subsequent Kris Kringle-like work for Children’s traces back to an epiphany when a teammate’s son was being treated for leukemia.

Keisel loved to visit the hospital and hosted some outpatient events. Once, he took a group of kids fishing. One boy dealing with a serious illness changed his life.

At the time, he felt trapped in the middle of a frustrating contract negotiation. “That boy had every reason – bigger reasons than I had – to be upset and lose hope,” Keisel said. “Instead, he opened my eyes and gave me perspective I've never forgotten.”

Keisel’s wide-angle view of life and give-back reflexes have also been shaped by the open range, hard work, and lots of exposure to animals.

Brett Keisel with horse, James
Brett Keisel with horse, James / Andrew Giangola

He grew up cowboy, born in Utah, then relocating to a ranch in Wyoming after his grandfather had a horse-riding accident. Hundreds of head of cattle needed tending. Young Brett held calves down, branded them, learned to ride and rope, ran cattle and did all the cowboy stuff required to run a ranch. 

While his brother still manages a herd of 1,500 cattle in Wyoming, football took him elsewhere. After trading his football cleats for cowboy boots full time in 2014, Keisel and his wife Sarah decided to make Pittsburgh home for raising their three kids. Keisel also purchased a farm east of the city so he could have a place to get away and raise livestock just like back in Wyoming. Many of the horses and cows are named after Steelers coaches and teammates.

One of his favorites is James, a year-and-a-half old quarter horse named for his best friend James Harrison, the hard-hitting linebacker whose 100-yard pick 6 touchdown helped beat the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. The 27-23 win, considered by many the best Super Bowl of all time, was sealed when LaMarr Woodley strip-sacked Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner and the ball bounced right to Keisel. He cradled it on the ground like a very large egg due careful protection until James Harrison slammed down on him in giddy celebration, knowing the two blood brothers had just won their second Super Bowl together. 

James Harrison with his "Terrible Towel" at PBR
James Harrison with his "Terrible Towel" at PBR / Bull Stock Media

Keisel also has cows with names like Horns Ward, Dick LeBull, and Polamalamoo. 

A top PBR bucking bull may join them. Keisel is talking to PBR stock contractor Mike Miller, whose Pennsylvania ranch is two hours from Pittsburgh, about buying a certain rank bucker. 

Keisel takes pleasure proudly living the cowboy life. At about the time he was starting to look like he could have been President in the 1880s, he famously drove a tractor into the Steelers training camp. When first meeting the PBR riders, he bounded into the horse stable in a cowboy hat and scuffed boots bearing a bag of glistening fresh deer jerky. 

“This place is filled with good country folks who worked hard and farm and do a lot of the things I did growing up,” Keisel said. “I really took for granted how and where I grew up. I’d ask, ‘I gotta fix a fence again? What do you mean, I gotta chase the herd again? I gotta go cut wood?’ Now I realize it taught me to work hard, and how to be around animals, which l love. The reason I wanted a ranch and a farm is to just take a breath. People talk about the sound of silence. That’s what I want: the sound of silence I find in nature.”

Keisel interviewed by Kate Harrison on CBS
Keisel interviewed by Kate Harrison on CBS / Bull Stock Media

It was anything but quiet at the bull riding later that night when Keisel was introduced as the Ridge Riders honorary coach on the PPG Paints Arena Jumbotron to fans lined to the rafters.

The sold-out joint went wild. Fans recognize the Samson beard. They remember the Super Bowl rings. They respond to one of their own, who loves them back.

Though his coaching role was largely ceremonial in a preseason rivalry showcase before the 2025 PBR Teams season officially starts in July, Keisel, always an energetic locker room guy, was there to win.

He brought the reliable positivity guys like Woodley and Harrison used to feed from with a rousing pep talk about seizing the opportunities life offers. In the bucking chutes, he was shouting “ATTABOY! LET'S DO IT! LET’S GO! GO! GO! GO!” as if it were James Harrison streaking down the sideline for an NFL team record sixth Super Bowl win instead of his new pal Keyshawn Whitehorse knocking down a clutch ride on the final out of the night on a bull called Eyes on Me for a walk-off Ridge Riders win over the Oklahoma Wildcatters, 258 – 254.5.

“Oh man, you could feel the intensity back there,” Keisel said. “That was one of the first things I noticed around a bull riding team. It’s anxious. The teams know they have to perform. It’s like an AFC championship game; you gotta go for it! These guys have worked so hard to get to this point. It takes a whole lot of commitment and grit. Football is dangerous, but this is another level. These guys are strapped to a tornado.”

The cowboy from Wyoming whooped and hollered and banshee screamed his way through both nights and felt that familiar fist-pumping rush from winning. He's proudly 1-0 with the Ridge Riders. After two sellouts (making it 12 for PBR in the month of January, an organizational record), PPG Paints Arena started selling tickets for next year’s bull riding in Steel City. Cowboys have never been cooler, and Pittsburgh’s most recognizable cowboy Brett Keisel says he won't miss it.

Don’t be surprised if he drives in his tractor, right onto the dirt.


Published |Modified
Andrew Giangola
ANDREW GIANGOLA

Andrew Giangola, who has held high-profile public relations positions with Pepsi-Cola, Simon & Schuster, Accenture, McKinsey & Co., and NASCAR, now serves as Vice President, Strategic Communications for PBR. In addition to serving in high-profile public relations positions over the past 25 years, Andrew Giangola is the author of the critically acclaimed books The Weekend Starts on Wednesday: True Stories of Remarkable NASCAR Fans and Love & Try: Stories of Gratitude and Grit in Professional Bull Riding, which benefits injured bull riders and was named the best nonfiction book of 2022 at the 62nd Annual Western Heritage Awards. Giangola graduated from Fordham University, concentrating in journalism, when he was able to concentrate. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Malvina.