Dorrian Roberts’ journey continues with Wichita Force

Dorrian Roberts overcame a season-ending knee injury in his first season as a walk-on transfer with Kansas State’s football team before becoming an important part of the Wildcats’ defensive backfield in 2013.

If his career had ended when he didn’t receive a chance to play in the NFL or the Canadian Football League last year, Roberts would have still have a nice story to tell.

“Looking back at it, a lot of people say I could probably write a book about it,” Roberts said. “Going through all that, it kind of humbled me.”

Roberts, who was signed by the Force for their inaugural season in the Champions Indoor Football league, has missed more football recently than he has played. The 13 games he played for KSU in 2013 represent his only action in four years.

He’s bringing that pent-up emotion back to Wichita, where he starred as a football and basketball player for Heights before graduating in 2008. The Force opens the season Saturday night against Salina at Intrust Bank Arena.

Roberts is embracing the homecoming but hoping it doesn’t last long. The time he spent rehabilitating his left knee after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in 2012, and the days he spent training last year when he wasn’t playing weren’t approached with an eye toward a long career in indoor football.

“I’m here to accomplish some goals,” said Roberts, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound cornerback. I want to play with the Wichita Force as much as I can, but I know that it’s a stepping stone to get somewhere else.”

Roberts followed his career at Heights with two successful junior-college years at Hutchinson, where he was an All-Jayhawk Conference performer in 2010. The transition to KSU wasn’t seamless as he sat out one year as a redshirt and suffered the knee injury a year later.

The stint at K-State ended well, though, and had Roberts aiming high. After a three-interception, 43-tackle 2013, Roberts trained extensively to impress NFL scouts. He ran a 4.49 40-yard dash and had a 33 1/2-inch vertical leap at his pro day last March, but it wasn’t enough to sway NFL teams and he went undrafted.

By then, it was too late for Roberts to latch on with a CFL team, so he began training as if he had a job. Roberts worked out in Wichita and in Springfield, Mo., and tried to get past the idea that he wasn’t yet good enough to play in a premier pro league.

“Mentally, I think it kind of drained me a little bit,” Roberts said. “It kind of made me think about if I should keep pushing for it. But I felt like I couldn’t live with myself if I gave up right now. I put so much work and time into football, and I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.”

Force coach Paco Martinez tracked Roberts down at a workout and offered him a job with the first-year team. Roberts wanted more, but saw the pass-heavy indoor game as an opportunity to display his skills, and playing in Wichita made his games accessible to friends and family.

The confidence Roberts needed to become a standout in the Big 12 following multiple setbacks has returned, but it now comes with humility from those experiences and gratitude for another chance.

“I wouldn’t regret any of the stuff that I’ve been through,” Roberts said. “I feel like if I keep continuing to work hard I can make my dreams come true still.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 7:22 PM with the headline "Dorrian Roberts’ journey continues with Wichita Force."