Brampton, Ont., a satellite city of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), may be known as the Flower City.

That doesn’t mean the hometown hero soon to be caught in the potentially-blinding Grey Cup high beams is anyone’s idea of a shrinking violet.

Quite the contrary.

Trashing, not tipping, the toledos at 254 pounds, Jerome Messam looks as if he should be lifting a greenhouse, not dwelling in one.

“Toronto,’’ said the Calgary Stampeders’ jackhammer tailback, “is home.

“I’m super-excited, it’s my first Grey Cup. It’s been seven years. I’m just trying to keep my emotions at bay right now.

“I expect big things from our team.

“It’s just going to be challenge to go to Toronto and stay locked in. It’s still a work week. But I know when I get out there, it’s going to be feeling of me arriving.”

Photo by David Moll

All the planets have finally aligned for Messam, at 31. His first CFL rushing title, scattering defenders like vulnerable 10-pins at the corner bowling alley for a career-high 1,198 yards.

Favoured to lay claim to a second Most Outstanding Canadian award tonight. Comfortable, secure, in a warm, welcoming organization that appreciates what he brings. An integral component of a singular group of players that has designs on cementing long-lasting greatness.

And as a capper, the chance to be crowned a Grey Cup champion at home, in front of loved ones.

Perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

“I’ll have a lot of family there to support me. My lady’s there. She’s pregnant.

“So I’ll be home chillin’ with them.

“I think I’ll just balance (family) with the schedule. For the most part, we have most of the days tied up with practice and stuff.

“It’s more stuff about the game, getting tickets. Hopefully they’ll be understanding and won’t put too much pressure on me for that stuff.”

Since arriving from Regina on trade deadline day 2015, Oct. 14, in exchange for kicker Tyler Crapigna and a swap of 2016 draft picks, Messam has grown to appreciate the Stampeders organization as much as it has appreciated him.

“It’s a fun place to come to work. The guys believe in our coaches and they believe in us. That shows on the field. Speaking for the offence, Coach Dicky knows the ins and outs, like a genius.

“Our offence is very hard to stop. That makes it easy as a player. You can go out there and play fast and confident.

“Hats off to our coaches for getting us prepared.”

Over the course of 19 starts – 16-2-1 – the Stampeders have proven virtually unstoppable.

“Honestly,’’ says Messam, “from the second game of the season, I told the guys that no one should stop us.

“The Grey Cup.

“It’s been a vision in my mind ever since then.”

Jerome Messam hugs his sister Tamika while carrying his five-year-old nephew Xavier following the team’s 2016 Western Final win (Photo by Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)

When asked about a last championship experience, his brow furrowed as he scrolled through long-ago memory banks.

“I think it was in Junior College. A bowl game.”

How’d it go?

“Good,’’ he replied, brightening. “We won.”

The big man, built along the lines of a statue carved by Michelangelo out of Cararra marble, is faster, harder to stop going downhill than Ingemar Stenmark. North-South he is, in the football vernacular, a load.

The football road map took him through Graceland College, to BC, Edmonton, Miami, Montreal and Saskatchewan before arriving here.

But Messam, never forget, got his start back home in Ontario lugging footballs and leaving bruises in his wake for the Notre Dame Knights of the Region of Peel Secondary School Athletic Association’s Tier 1 league.

“We were undefeated for two years,’’ Messam recalled. “So go Knights.”

Often labeled as a player with something to prove, this older, wiser, more secure version of Jerome Messam feels no need.

“I don’t know if there’s much proving to do,’’ he chided the assembled media mongrels the other day. “You guys haven’t been talking crap about me all year.”

No reason. The man’s been nothing short of superb.

He’s got the impetus. The support system. The players around him. The belief. And the ideal locale.

For Jerome Messam, the Brampton guy who packs the power in Flower Power, all the planets are now in alignment.

“I’m just very blessed,’’ he acknowledged, “to have it unfold like this. Hopefully I can win the award and then the game on Sunday in front of family and friends.

“It’d be awesome.

“Can’t write the script any better.”