When a journalist’s pre-season predictions had Jerome Messam slotted in as only the eighth-best running back in the CFL this season, he took it personally.
He also took a screenshot of the insult on his phone to use as motivation, and to savour later when he’d proved it wrong.
And oh, how wrong.
“I was like ‘OK, if that’s how you feel, then I’m going to show you what time it is,'” Messam said, with a laugh.
The Calgary player led the league in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in propelling the Stampeders to Sunday’s Grey Cup, and was up for the top Canadian in Thursday night’s CFL awards.
While criticism has seemingly followed the big running back through his seven seasons and five stops in the Canadian Football League, it has simply served to fuel the 31-year-old from Brampton, Ont.
“I look at that stuff in the off-season, how you guys (reporters) talk about me, it kind of sits with me a little bit. It was definitely motivation,” Messam said.
“I just like to prove doubters wrong. That’s been a thing of mine through my career. I’m pretty self-motivated.”
It’s been a complicated career of ups and downs — more downs, it seems, than ups — for Messam. In his rookie season in 2010 with the B.C. Lions, he was charged with assaulting a bouncer at a London, Ont., bar. He fought teammate Paris Jackson in the locker-room, and then there was concern about his focus during the 2011 training camp. He was traded to Edmonton.
Injuries hampered his two seasons with the Eskimos, and he was traded to Montreal, where his injuries would follow him.
Saskatchewan signed him in 2014, but then shipped him to Calgary at last year’s trade deadline.
“Heard some of that stuff (about Messam’s troubles) when we traded for him last year. . . certainly I was aware of that, but I wanted to be fair to him, let him prove to me what type of guy he is,” said Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson. “I stay on top of him. . . and from what I’ve seen, he shows up to play each and every week, he’s not a selfish guy, he’s a well-rounded football player, he can run and catch and block.
“So you look at that, I think I’ve got a good back and I’m glad to have him.”
Watch below: Calgary Stampeders Head Coach Dave Dickenson met with the media Monday, as his team prepares to head to Toronto for the Grey Cup against the Ottawa Redblacks.
His move to Calgary was perfectly timed, as he’s filled in for two-time Grey Cup champion Jon Cornish, who retired after last season.
The six-foot-three, 254 pound Messam, who also attended the Miami Dolphins training camp in 2012, is making his Grey Cup debut this week. The fact it’s in his hometown is all the more sweet.
“It’s been a long road, lot of ups and downs, had a lot of doubters in my career, but I feel like I’ve overcome a lot and proved those people wrong,” Messam said. “It’s just a great time, it’s a blessing to see how everything’s come together and to be playing here in my hometown in front of friends and family, it’s going to be awesome.”
During the Stampeders’ media day Thursday, he bent down to take a close look at the carefully polished Grey Cup trophy, but dared not touch it — superstition warned him against it.
“I’m going to touch it on Sunday, I’m going to lift it over my head, sipping out of it, and pouring drinks on everyone,” he said, laughing.
Fellow running back Rob Cote hollered at Messam: “Gotta get your name on that trophy!”
“I’ve been talking to (Messam), especially in the last couple of weeks, but throughout the whole year I’ve been telling him, just trying to keep him with the single-minded focus, ‘I want to get you a Cup man, you’ve been a good player in this league,'” Cote said. “He’s had the individual accolades. Now he needs what to me is the most important one, the team accolades.
“You can only get that one way, and that’s by winning on Sunday.”
Cote, who won Grey Cups with Calgary in 2008 and 2014, didn’t know Messam from previous seasons in the CFL.
“And the Messam I know is a very passionate guy,” Cote said. “To me, that’s the thing that stands out the most. He’s got passion for the game, and he wears his heart on his sleeve, he’s going to tell you what he’s feeling and he kind of does what he does and you’ve got to get on board. That’s just kind of who he is.
“And on game day, he’s got that fire. He’s going to be fired up, he’s going to be ready to go, he’s a guy you can count on every week to be ready to go.”
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