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Donovan Porterie admitted it was a little odd at first.
During training camp with the New Mexico Chupcabras, he started to hear it from other players, many of them younger by at least a decade. The nickname that any player of his age and stature will almost inevitably receive should they make it to that point.
O.G.
If the nickname was a bit of a shock at first, the former New Mexico quarterback soon realized there was nothing he could do about it.
“I had to kinda remember, ‘damn bro, you’re up there,’” he chuckled. “You’re 38, man.’”
Saturday, Porterie will gladly take the field for another game as the Chupcabras’ resident O.G., a role he’s come to embrace. At 39 years old, there’s a little gray in his beard now. And the veteran arena football quarterback admits he’s lost a step or two when he takes off on the run.
None of that really bothers him – after all, he’s still playing.
Why?
“I wanted to finish my career here … It’s always special to be able to come back and showcase your whole body of work,” he said.
A Port Arthur, Texas native, Porterie played four seasons at UNM and passed for 6,756 yards, the third-highest total of any quarterback in program history. But after a “very short stint” in the NFL, he embarked on a career playing for upwards of 10 arena and indoor football franchises across the country.
In 2023, that career nearly came to an abrupt end. Playing against the Sioux City Bandits, Poterie remembers stepping up in the pocket to pass and dodging a defensive lineman before planting his right leg.
Only then did he feel it.
“Like somebody hit me with a spinning back kick,” he remembered.
Porterie later found out that he had ruptured his Achilles tendon, ending his season and setting him up for a gruelling recovery process. For the next two years, he didn’t play a game as he rehabbed his leg and vowed to make a return, even if he didn’t know what it might look like.
“It was a non-contact injury – it wasn’t like somebody hit me or I was doing something crazy,” he said. “It was just the turf. So I was like, ‘I’m not gonna let the turf monster make out,’ you know?
When the Chupcabras rebranded in the summer of 2025, a few people who worked with the area’s previous indoor football team, the Duke City Gladiators, contacted him to see if he would be interested in trying out. Porterie said he thought about it for a week before deciding he would go for it, but only under one condition.
“I didn’t want to be a shell of myself,” he said. “Coming into camp with all of these young guys, I was like, ‘man, I gotta run, I gotta do the fakes the correct way, I gotta really, really throw the ball.’ I wanted to take my time (to rehab) but I wanted to do it the right way.”
To this point, Porterie’s rehab work has largely paid off. While the Chupacabras have struggled to a 2-10 start, the veteran has performed well over a handful of starts after the team traded former starting quarterback Ja’rome Johnson in May.
He’s also earned the respect of the locker room in a way only an O.G. could.
“We actually got in a little bit of a scuffle against (the Arizona Rattlers) because somebody kind of got in (Porterie’s) face,” Chupacabras co-owner Mike Fietz said. “And one of our offensive lineman, he said, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Fietz, but you don’t get in the face of the O.G.’ They look at him as kind of that big brother leader.”
Porterie doesn’t think he wants this year to be the end, either. While he hasn’t talked to ownership about a potential return, he made it clear he wouldn’t mind another full season with the Chupacabras before hanging it up.
“Just because of the way things started off this year … I definitely didn’t envision the end of my career being like or finishing this way. So probably, definitely give it another year, come back and do it the right way for Albuquerque.”
Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at [email protected] or via X at @lenaweereider.
Continue reading...
During training camp with the New Mexico Chupcabras, he started to hear it from other players, many of them younger by at least a decade. The nickname that any player of his age and stature will almost inevitably receive should they make it to that point.
O.G.
If the nickname was a bit of a shock at first, the former New Mexico quarterback soon realized there was nothing he could do about it.
“I had to kinda remember, ‘damn bro, you’re up there,’” he chuckled. “You’re 38, man.’”
Saturday, Porterie will gladly take the field for another game as the Chupcabras’ resident O.G., a role he’s come to embrace. At 39 years old, there’s a little gray in his beard now. And the veteran arena football quarterback admits he’s lost a step or two when he takes off on the run.
None of that really bothers him – after all, he’s still playing.
Why?
“I wanted to finish my career here … It’s always special to be able to come back and showcase your whole body of work,” he said.
A Port Arthur, Texas native, Porterie played four seasons at UNM and passed for 6,756 yards, the third-highest total of any quarterback in program history. But after a “very short stint” in the NFL, he embarked on a career playing for upwards of 10 arena and indoor football franchises across the country.
In 2023, that career nearly came to an abrupt end. Playing against the Sioux City Bandits, Poterie remembers stepping up in the pocket to pass and dodging a defensive lineman before planting his right leg.
Only then did he feel it.
“Like somebody hit me with a spinning back kick,” he remembered.
Porterie later found out that he had ruptured his Achilles tendon, ending his season and setting him up for a gruelling recovery process. For the next two years, he didn’t play a game as he rehabbed his leg and vowed to make a return, even if he didn’t know what it might look like.
“It was a non-contact injury – it wasn’t like somebody hit me or I was doing something crazy,” he said. “It was just the turf. So I was like, ‘I’m not gonna let the turf monster make out,’ you know?
When the Chupcabras rebranded in the summer of 2025, a few people who worked with the area’s previous indoor football team, the Duke City Gladiators, contacted him to see if he would be interested in trying out. Porterie said he thought about it for a week before deciding he would go for it, but only under one condition.
“I didn’t want to be a shell of myself,” he said. “Coming into camp with all of these young guys, I was like, ‘man, I gotta run, I gotta do the fakes the correct way, I gotta really, really throw the ball.’ I wanted to take my time (to rehab) but I wanted to do it the right way.”
To this point, Porterie’s rehab work has largely paid off. While the Chupacabras have struggled to a 2-10 start, the veteran has performed well over a handful of starts after the team traded former starting quarterback Ja’rome Johnson in May.
He’s also earned the respect of the locker room in a way only an O.G. could.
“We actually got in a little bit of a scuffle against (the Arizona Rattlers) because somebody kind of got in (Porterie’s) face,” Chupacabras co-owner Mike Fietz said. “And one of our offensive lineman, he said, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Fietz, but you don’t get in the face of the O.G.’ They look at him as kind of that big brother leader.”
Porterie doesn’t think he wants this year to be the end, either. While he hasn’t talked to ownership about a potential return, he made it clear he wouldn’t mind another full season with the Chupacabras before hanging it up.
“Just because of the way things started off this year … I definitely didn’t envision the end of my career being like or finishing this way. So probably, definitely give it another year, come back and do it the right way for Albuquerque.”
Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at [email protected] or via X at @lenaweereider.
Continue reading...
