In the fight game, the saying is as old as scar tissue, as familiar as the scent of fear:
Go 15 rounds with the heavy bag and the heavy bag always wins.
Jerome Messam is one heavy bag.
“What’s he top out at?” asks Calgary Stampeders’ safety Josh Bell, positively pipecleaner-thin by comparison. “Two-forty? Mmmm, mmmm.
“I’ve never been hit by Jerome Messam. But I have hit him. Often. Brother, it is not a pleasant experience. Like riding a bull, right?
“If you can conquer a bull, or at least hang on for eight seconds, you’ve done something.”
Jerome Messam at 2016 training camp (Photo by Molly Campbell)
It’s Day One of a new dawn down at McMahon Stadium. John Hufnagel keeping out of sight. Dave Dickenson in total control. Juwan Simpson modelling a guest coaching hat. Keon Raymond plying his trade in Toronto.
And no sign of Jon Cornish.
Great teams, it’s often said, are defined by positional eras. At tailback hereabouts, the Joffrey Reynolds era lasted half a dozen top years. Cornish succeeded him and took the job to a higher level altogether – winning three Most Outstanding Canadian Award and a Most Outstanding Player Award over five seasons as the feature back.
With ongoing concussion concerns cutting short Cornish’s career, there’s a change at the top of the evolutionary food chain again.
Now we arrive at Messam time.
“I’m not trying to ‘replace’ anyone,’’ he corrects politely. “I’m not trying to fill anybody’s shoes. I’m not the next Jon Cornish.
“I’m the first Jerome Messam.”
The first. The one. The only.
“He’s obviously a key addition to our lineup,’’ says linebacker Deron Mayo. “Not only being a great Canadian running back, like Jon, but being a great running back, period, like Jon, able to break games open.”
On the first day of his first training camp in retirement, while his old team was being put through customary two-a-days, Jon Cornish is at home, hitting the books to further his post-football investment banking career.
“I am SO happy,’’ laughs Cornish, “that I’m not playing anymore. The prospect of someone not hitting me or not coming after me … why would that ever be OK with me again going forward?
“I mean, I go to work, sit in a chair and literally don’t have to worry about physical violence.
“Remember, for a long time I was that guy who was a target for destruction.
“I went down to the Stadium on Saturday and introduced myself around. It was great because I could officially see I’m not playing football anymore. It’s one thing to retire but it’s another thing to see a new team, a new Stampeders, that I’m not a part of, in that locker room.
“And there’ve been a lot of changes. It’s crazy how different it is now.
“That helps in the realization that that part of my life is really over.’’
And his take on the new go-to tailback in red-and-white?
“It’s going to be a different thing for him now. Last year, a lot of people were saying, kind of surprised: ’Oh, Messam’s back.’ This year, everybody knows he’s back. In my mind, he’s the top dog at the position. There’s Andrew Harris, of course, but Winnipeg’s running game is an unknown.
“I think Messam’s going to have a great season. But people are going to be playing him differently this year. He’s the new Dude.”
While Cornish was a felicitous mixture of escapability and physicality when required, Messam is primarily erosion, waves crashing continually against the shore line. Attrition. Accumulation.
“It’s taken a while, but things are finally where I want them to be.”
– RB Jerome Messam
“Both Jerome and Jon,” adjudges Stamps’ running backs coach Marc Mueller, “are downhill runners, good in protection so you can count on them. Mess was here at the end of last year, so he’s got a good base and we’re looking forward to see how he builds off that.
“We’re looking for (Messam) to embrace a bigger role, become one of the leaders on this team. Like you said, this is his seventh or eighth training camp now. He’s an older a guy. A vet.
“Guys can learn things from him.”
Mueller smiles when asked to finish the sentence “Being hit by Jerome Messam is like being hit by …”
“Uh, something I’d never want to find myself in front of, that much I do know,’’ replies Mueller. “He’s a big guy. But really athletic for his size. He can get out of the backfield, a natural ball catcher. Everything you’d want out of a back.”
“I never,’’ chimes in Mayo, “hit him up high. I never dared to. I suppose it’d be like running into the trunk of a tree.
“Me, I was just aiming for the limbs.”
Now 31, from a certain angle, the entirety of Jerome Messam’s career seems to have led to this moment, this place, this opportunity.
Coming over from Saskatchewan (as the league’s leading rusher at the time) at the mid-October trade deadline for kicker Tyler Crapigna, the big man was viewed more at McMahon Stadium as an insurance policy should Cornish’s situation not improve. He finished with 180 yards on 26 carries as a Stamp, and another 122 yards in the playoffs.
Now, the looming spectre of Cornish has vanished.
Now, as old Dude himself admits, Messam is the new Dude.
RB Jerome Messam on Oct. 31, 2015 (Photo by Johany Jurtras)
“It’s a blessing to be this age and feel as I good as I do,’’ Messam says. “I haven’t really had the mileage, the beating on my body, that a lot of other guys do after seven seasons.
“This’ll be only my third year when I come in and play from start to finish. Knock on wood, staying healthy by God’s grace, I just want to come out and play to the full extent of my capabilities.
“I’m not old, but I want to help these young guys develop, learn how to be pros. I can be vocal when I need to but I’m not someone who goes out to step on anybody’s toes. I try to go out and lead by example.
“I’m in a good spot right now.
“It’s taken a while, but things are finally where I want them to be; they’ve fallen into place for me.”
Great teams, it’s often, are defined by positional eras.
Making Sunday the first day of the Messam Era?
“I guess,’’ he replies, smiling slightly. “If so, let’s get it started.”