Human caffeine:

Adam Candee

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 9:49 a.m.

It is Coco Blalock's job to make people miss him, and he did just that to the Las Vegas Gladiators early last year.

They missed all 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds of his infectious energy and unflappable optimism, just as opponents do on his high-speed kick returns. And although he eventually did, Blalock never wanted to swoop in and save the team late in the season, mostly because he never wanted to leave in the first place.

He will not take credit for spurring the Gladiators' late surge in 2004, but Blalock made the turnaround play of the year on a kick return in Week 12, and filled roles on and off the turf that the team dearly missed after losing him to Columbus as a free agent.

"The energy wasn't there," Blalock said. "They needed somebody to pick them up."

Las Vegas won five of its final six games with Blalock, who requested his release from the Destroyers at midseason and was claimed off waivers at the urging of Ron James, his coach and mentor.

"He was the sparkplug for us," Gladiators quarterback Clint Dolezel said. "We were really lacking on special teams at the time."

The role of indispensable player is new to Blalock, a speedy but undersized kick return specialist and wide receiver who has fought perceptions about his small stature throughout his playing career. He feels at home in Las Vegas, playing for a coach who believes in him with a team that needs him to repeat last year's magic this season.

In his final six games of 2004, Blalock compiled 13 touchdowns -- good enough to rank second on the team for the entire season. He averaged 21.5 yards per kick return, easily the best among the Gladiators.

"Every time I touch that ball, I want people to worry about me," Blalock said.

He racked up nine of those touchdowns in the final two games, when Blalock expanded his offensive game to make opponents pay for focusing coverage on offensive specialist Marcus Nash by exploiting them on deep routes. He totaled 483 all-purpose yards in those two games.

"If they're going to try to take (Nash) out of his game, Coco's going to shine," James said.

The Big Play

Despite his success as a receiver, it is Blalock's innate return skills that announced his return to Las Vegas. When James orchestrated his return on April 21, Blalock made a promise to James in his first day back on the practice field.

"He told me, point blank, 'I'll run back the first kickoff I touch for you,"' James said.

Four days later against Detroit, Blalock took the opening kickoff 56 yards for a touchdown -- promised and delivered. The Las Vegas sideline erupted with joy not seen in weeks and the team nearly made the playoffs after once falling to 3-6.

"People want me to take the credit, but I can't," Blalock said. "Who couldn't make the kicker miss?"

The play also made James wonder how the team let Blalock get away in the first place. Las Vegas needed Blalock after dealing away standout kick returner Sedrick Robinson in the trade to acquire Dolezel from Grand Rapids, but an acrimonious 2003 season led to contentious contract negotiations that eventually drove him away.

"The people negotiating the contracts at the time kind of took him for granted," James said. "And that's not good business."

Blalock came to the New Jersey Gladiators from Milwaukee in 2001 and instantly became a key player, catching 51 passes for 713 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 20.3 yards per kick return. He was named team MVP and entered 2002 entrenched in the Gladiators' plans before tearing his Achilles' tendon on a kick return in a preseason game.

That's when Blalock really began to impress James. Blalock sat down with Robinson and looked at film with his replacement, dissecting his returns and helping Robinson average 22.6 yards per return, including four touchdowns. Blalock, a native of Kenosha, Wisc., who scrapped his way through childhood on up through the community college and Division I-AA ranks just to get to the Arena Football League, never complained throughout his rehabilitation.

"Every time I'd see him, as physically down as he was, he would always have a smile on his face," James said.

Moving on

Blalock may have done too good of a job with Robinson. Ready to return from injury in 2003, Blalock was relegated to the bench by former head coach Frank Haege, who had grown to trust Robinson and decided not to dress two very similar players.

Blalock played just four mostly ineffective games in the Gladiators' first season in Las Vegas in 2003 and remembered that when negotiating with the team.

"I didn't dress the first 12 weeks of 2003," Blalock said. "That had something to do with why I didn't come back."

Unable to come to terms with the Gladiators, Blalock reluctantly accepted an offer from Columbus, calling the negotiations "a misunderstanding that went bad." The Destroyers also had Robinson after acquiring him from Grand Rapids, again muddying the path for Blalock, who totaled five touchdowns in eight games with Columbus.

James, who coached special teams, pushed throughout the year to bring back Blalock to help his horrific squad that had tried nine different kick returners with little success as the unit's mistakes cost the Gladiators in losses against Colorado and Los Angeles.

"The person that believed in me more than anybody was coach James," Blalock said.

Coaches who have believed in Blalock are rare, in his experience. He's used to being one of the smallest guys on the field, dogged by questions about durability.

"It's a chip that you carry on your shoulder, day in and day out," Blalock said. "It's not even that you want to prove them wrong. You want to prove it to yourself."

"Throughout my career, I've always dealt with teams that didn't believe I can play the game. I had confidence in myself."

Anatomy of a return

He's had to silence the critics by relying on his speed and logical approach to returning kicks.

Blalock sees it like this: With eight players on an arena football field, it is likely that four or five are linemen who have little interest in chasing down a fast, slippery returner. One of those players is the kicker, and his feelings there are clear.

That leaves two or three players to Blalock's responsibility. He must make them miss to be successful. A career average of 20.2 yards per return suggests Blalock is doing the job.

"To be a good returner, you have to have confidence in yourself," Blalock said. "You have to be able to make people miss."

That's about as brash as you will hear from Blalock, whose humility borne of overcoming adversity makes him popular both with coaches and teammates.

"He's really positive and very humble," Dolezel said. "He's a great guy to have in the locker room. I'd take 24 guys like him."