Indoor Football League: Corpus Christi's forfeit means Roughnecks still have playoff hope

For at least a week now, the Odessa Roughnecks have held a small, slim chance at the playoffs, a chance so insignificant the coaches didn't even tell the team about it.

No matter how small, no matter how insignificant, that chance still gave the team hope.

Ever since last week, Indoor Football League officials have been reviewing an incident in a matchup between Abilene and Corpus Christi on June 20 in Robstown.

"It's kind of tough to explain," Odessa Roughnecks head coach Chris Williams said. "If Corpus Christi has to forfeit the game, that puts us back in the playoff hunt."

The Roughnecks got that extra bit of hope Wednesday night when the IFL ruled that Corpus Christi and Abilene both were assessed forfeit losses.

Details of the altercation are a little sketchy.

According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, several players from both sides were ejected during Corpus Christi's 44-35 win.

Getting a player ejected from the game doesn't affect a team.

But an ejected player has to leave the field completely and head to the locker room. An ejected player isn't allowed back onto the field.

"The rule book says, if you are ejected from the game, you have to leave the bench," Williams said. "A Corpus Christi player got ejected, then came back in the second quarter."

As the story goes, that Hammerheads player came back and immediately got into a fight with the referee.

Those details don't matter.

But simply allowing the player back on the sideline was the cause for Corpus Christi to forfeit the game, which puts the Hammerheads at 5-8.

The Roughnecks (3-9) are back in the hunt, though they have to win out and hope the Hammerheads lose Saturday against San Angelo to force a tie for the third-place spot. The Roughnecks play Saturday at Abilene (6-6) and then finish the regular season July 11 with a home game against Abilene, which already has clinched a playoff berth.

All of a sudden, the Roughnecks have an escape route from the worst season in franchise history.

Under the rules of the IFL - in its first year of existence - the top three teams from each division reach the playoffs.

"Every week is going to be intense," Roughnecks lineman Ahmad Childress said. "We're always up for a little competition."