FAITH, ENJOYING RODEO LIFESTYLE IS NO BULL FOR MORAES.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

ANAHEIM - A movie about the life of Adriano Moraes should start in a noisy, smelly, dirt-strewn rodeo arena. The handsome 36-year-old Brazilian mashes his black cowboy hat back down onto his head one last time with his right hand while regripping his left glove onto a rope looped around a 1,400-pound bull genetically bred to give him the sensation of being thrown through a car windshield.

The camera can zoom in for a tight shot of his left eye -- the socket that's been reconstructed with titanium -- and pan down to his boots as a narrator goes over his litany of fractures, dislocations, lacerations, punctured organs, countless concussions and visit to intensive care wards. Stuff that would make Evel Knievel envious.

Although, if this is going to be a Hollywood script about good versus evil, Moraes knows what side he'd be on.

"Faith," the reigning and three-time Professional Bull Riders world champion begins as he stretches out his legs, one of which still has a steel rod and a few screws in it, and puts his feet up on a coffee table in his peaceful, pristine hotel room just down the street from Honda Center, where this weekend's PBR event comes barreling through.

"Without faith, I could not do anything. God created me as a bull rider. I pray constantly."

Who wouldn't be counting their blessings to survive another week of tangling with steers that go by the names of Cruel Dude, Scene Of The Crash, Lights Out and Cheeseburger With An Attitude.

As he spends some downtime watching the movie "Fantastic Four" on his TV, Moraes conveys a clear spiritual attitude that doesn't involve any fast-food philosophy: Since no onehas the superhuman powers to live on Earth forever, life's a temporary stop that must be embraced.

The devout evangelical Catholic pulls a brazilwood rosary from his pocket and explains that whatever power he derives from his convictions, it allows him to continue a very successful living at something most in their right minds wouldn't -- and shouldn't -- ever attempt.

"I'm scared of heights," he admits. "I'd never bungee jump, or base jump or parachute out of a plane. It's that sense of not being in control. It's why I hate flying."

In a plane, maybe. Off a bull that's been bullied, never.

"Fear can not enter your mind when you're riding," he continues. "You've got to at least act like you're Superman -- invincible, unbreakable. Any fear you may have, you turn it into strength, then you go for it, knowing if you get thrown off, you get up and do it again."

God willing.

The rough 'n' tumble tournament format at a typical PBR event is structured quite simple: Three rides per competitor, the top 45 are narrowed to a final 15, a possible (but nearly impossible) score of 100is the judges' limit per ride, with a 90 as the seldom-reached benchmark for excellence. Riders and bulls are each judged for a combined final score.

Winner gets about $20,000 an event.

Amidst the blaring music and non-stop action, you'll see plenty of crossover of the fan base from NASCAR (Dale Earnhardt Jr. sponsors a stop in North Carolina) and the NFL (New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington co-owns a herd of bulls used in competition).

No wonder. This complicated, synchronized dance between man and beast, done at breakneck speed that can end in a broken neck, is more like a NASCAR spinout without the rollbars, a full-on violent quarterback sack with no help from an "in the grasp" rule.

Considering one of the top bulls on the circuit right now is named Steve-O, relating this all to the movie "Jackass" might be closer to reality.

"I don't see it as crazy; I see it as normal," says Moraes, who came into this eighth event of the season ranked 11th in the overall standings.

Marketing itself as an extreme sport on sawdust, the PBR circuit steers into this entertainment mecca at a time when Hollywood might want to consider a new angle at wrangling the passion and personalities for the silver screen.

Anyone who considers "City Slickers" a documentary probably knows of a 1994 flick titled "8Seconds," starring Luke Perry as 1987 PRCA bull riding world champion Lane Frost. Not to spoil the ending, but Frost dies when a bull spears him. But along the way, many facts of his life are manipulated for story's sake.

To Moraes, whose $3 million-plus in earnings over his 13-year career gives him the resources to invest in a movie project, a cinematic treatment about him would have to capture more of the soulfulness than the psychoticness. Less Buckaroo Banzai and more George Strait to the heart.

"I've been disappointed by the image Hollywood gives us," said Moraes, one of three bull-riding brothers. "They try to show us how they see the sport rather than how we see it.

"It wouldn't be just another cowboy movie. It'd have to be like taking an action movie and a love story and putting them together, with nothing artificial.

"You'd have to show the real heroes, both the riders and bulls. We are all about passion and living. We don't do this because it's dangerous or we can make money. We have to love it. And that passion has to show.

"But the way they've portrayed us, they stray from reality because it sells. I wouldn't want my life story to change for a movie. People believe too much from what they see, so it has to be as real as possible. It can't be too stupid."

In the movie version of Adriano Moraes' life, maybe he wins another world title in Las Vegas, and then decides it's time to head back to Tyler, Texas, with his wife and threesmall sons and rest his weary re-fused bones.

Or maybe not.

"I'm going to ride as long as I feel competitive," he insists. "That could be 10 years from now, or it could be tomorrow."

We'll stay around for the closing credits.

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CAPTION(S):

5 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) Adriano Moreas has made more than $3 million in his 13-year professional bull-riding career.

Andy Watson/PBR

(2) no caption (Adriano Moraes)

(3) ASHLEY FORCE

(4) JOHN AMAECHI

(5) TIGER WOODS

Box:

(1) sunday punch

- Tom Hoffarth

(2) The Pop Quiz