‘I think I have a bright future’

By Rob Miech

Saturday, April 12, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Dominique Dorsey has had to prove himself since Pee Wee ball. He was the smallest kid on the field, but the coach gave him No. 75 and told him to block on the offensive line. His thigh pads hit his ankles.

He’d glance at his parents in the stands and shrug.

Dorsey, UNLV’s last 1,000-yard rusher, will begin his fourth season in the Canadian Football League in June, but he continues to draw inspiration from his two pillars.

The 5-foot-7 Dorsey gets his patience from his father, Donald, who served in the Air Force for years.

He gets his work ethic from his mother, Pamela, a 5-foot-4 dynamo who spent nearly 20 years as a correctional officer at Corcoran State Prison in California. She grew up in Watts and once played linebacker in a street football game while wearing a cast after breaking a leg.

“I’m thankful I have people like that in my life,” Dorsey said.

Looking up to most everyone on a pro field might always fuel him. He had tryouts in Kansas City, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh this winter, but those NFL teams didn’t get back to him. He doesn’t think his stature was a factor.

“They wouldn’t say that to my face,” he said. “Maybe that’s what’s keeping me out of the NFL? I don’t see me being 5-7. I see myself as a great football player. But I’m used to playing with an edge, anyway.”

Dorsey has established himself in the funky CFL, which has 110-yard fields, three downs to make 15 yards and a 1-point play — when a kick isn’t returned out of the 20-yard-deep end zones.

That makes a savvy and slippery returner like Dorsey a necessity. Last season, in his first game with the Toronto Argonauts, he returned a missed field goal 129 yards. He shook a few foes in the opponents’ end zone before zipping free down the right sideline.

He’s not a big guy, roared the television announcer, but he runs big. No clowning around. No taunting. Oh, he’s electrifying.

Dorsey barely played half the season for the Argonauts, but his 1,628 all-purpose yards were seventh in the league.

“I think I have a bright future,” he said.

North of the border, Dorsey uses loonies (one-dollar coins), twoonies (two-dollar coins) and colored bills that make him feel like he’s playing Monopoly. He can’t stomach poutine, french fries covered in fresh cheese curds and brown gravy that is a Canadian fast-food staple. He monitors exchange rates daily and is becoming an ace in arbitrage.

The Canadian season starts in June and ends in November. So he returns to Las Vegas each offseason to be with fiancee Michi Gardner and train at the Phillipi Sports Institute.

For the past month, Dorsey has been working the loading docks at the FedEx warehouse where Gardner is employed. He had some free time and looked forward to meeting new people. He relished earning a recent gift certificate as the employee of the day. Apparently, Dorsey scans packages as well as he zigs and zags on the field.

He also informs former teammates and ex-Rebels about the CFL. Its eight teams have salary caps of about $4 million, and half of the 42-man rosters must be Canadian.

Former UNLV star Jay Staggs has signed with Montreal as a defensive back, and Larry Croom, Jamaal Brimmer, John Guice and Will Tagoai are considering Canadian offers.

“It’s not easy to crack the Canadian football scene,” Dorsey said.

He relishes returning to his apartment in Canada after a game and watching replays of his electric moves. He can’t wait to see his blue No. 34 on the screen.

He even had a spiffy highlight DVD produced a few months ago for coaches and scouts.

During an interview, he unfolds a silver DVD player from his backpack and places it on a table at an outdoor cafe. Incoming jets roar overhead. Traffic thunders by. Patrons chat about work and the weather.

He’s hypnotized by the tiny player flashing across the screen.

“Nobody thought I’d be that guy,” Dorsey whispers. “It’s unreal. Oh, that’s me! It happened so fast.”