Roughnecks Struggling?

Roughnecks owner Richard Ruybalid doesn't think the El Paso Brawlers will come to Farmington to play their scheduled game Saturday.

Ruybalid said the Brawlers have little incentive to make the trip after the Roughnecks lost 17-0 to the New Mexico Titans yesterday.

"It doesn't help them for playoffs. It does cost money for them to come up," Ruybalid said.

The Roughnecks forfeited the season-opener that was scheduled in El Paso for March 7 after considering travel expenses. There was also talk that some team members didn't feel prepared to face the Brawlers, who beat them 68-23 in last year's Southwest Football Conference championship, ruining their 12-0 season.

The Roughnecks are 6-4 this year and may have played their last game. The Roswell Invasion also forfeited their scheduled game at The Hutch on May 16. The Southern California Steelers are the last scheduled opponent according to the team Web site.

I didn't have much time to talk with him, but Ruybalid didn't sound very optimistic as I conducted the interview version of a speed date with him today before leaving his store at Animas Valley Mall.

"We kind of got it handed to us (by the Titans). No playoff games here at home," Ruybalid said. "That might be it. We'll have to wait and see."

* Former Roughnecks offensive lineman Jason Quigley touched on a popular subject while discussing his propensity for having a temper on the football field.

 He talked about how it's difficult at times for some players to refrain from using profanity or yelling during games despite the presence of children.

"No organization is without its things that we can improve on," Quigley said. "We really push to be a family atmosphere and the closer the kids get to the action, the more you have to pay attention to that."

* Quigley made a classy point about sports rhetoric, one hammered home to me by former DenverBroncos.com editor Andrew Mason: football isn't war.

"People call it a war, but it's not a war. That's an insult to the people in Iraq that are actually fighting in a war."

* Quigley, who played football for Utah, talked for five minutes about the status of the Utes as a BCS buster, ribbing on me for my Crimson Tide's loss to Utah in the Sugar Bowl (I watched the game at the Mariott hotel in Farmington during my job interview).

He thinks last year's team wasn't as good as the 2005 version that beat Pittsburgh 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl, featuring 2005 first overall NFL draft pick and quarterback Alex Smith.

Quigley said that team had fewer holes and it was an embarrassment they had to play the Panthers, who were beaten at every position.

* The quote of the week, also from Quigley: "I'm mediocre at flag football. At barbeques I'm no good at it. I just have to pretend the guy across from me just killed my parents. No talk on the field. Most guys would think I was deaf. I never say anything.

"I get the chills just thinking about getting hit. You get to go do things that otherwise you'd probably get thrown in jail for. It's very therapeutic for me also."

Think the guy was a lineman?

Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher