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July 6, 2017

Messam and Harris: Cream of the Canadian running back crop

Jerome Messam (33) of the Calgary Stampeders before the game at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, MB. Thursday, July 21, 2016. (Photo: Johany Jutras)

Jamaal Westerman, no wilting lilly himself, has a rather unorthodox game plan to slow down the Messam Train.

Add a caboose or two to create additional drag.

Well, nothing else has worked.

“He likes to eat, a lot,” teased the Winnipeg Blue Bombers mammoth defensive tackle, in brilliant sunshine on walkthrough Thursday out at Investors Group Field. “I’m always calling him: ‘What you eatin’ today?’

“Hopefully he gets to like, 270, a little heavier and slows down a bit.

“A big, powerful back, keeps his legs moving. Shiftier than people think. We have to gang-tackle him. You can’t have one guy saying ‘I’m gonna do it.’ Everybody has to be there.

“He can make guys miss and he’s big enough that maybe a guy falls off an arm tackle and then he has that home-run speed.

“It’s what sets him apart.

“That speed.

“So I’ll recommend a couple restaurants here. Winnipeg will cook good for him. Get him real heavy. Gonna be real warm (Friday) so a lot of butter and stuff. A lot of salt.

“That’d be good.”

Not happenin’, reports Jerome Messam.

“We are going out to eat together, yes. But I’ll be in charge of my order.”

In a game that features duelling Eastern Washington quarterbacking alumni Bo Levi Mitchell and Matt Nichols above the marquee, there’s another compelling ying-yang storyline to consider:

The Calgary Stampeders’ battering-ram Messam and all-purpose Andrew Harris of the Blue Bombers.

The two men, you see, share more than a jersey number (33) and citizenship.

In essence, they were introduced to the CFL together.

“We were teammates, roommates, competed against each other (in BC),’’ reminisces Harris. “Jerome’s gifted.

“A man that size, 250 pounds, you can’t believe he runs like he can. Messam’s a great back. Can do it all. A force.

“The big thing is consistency. Some guys are good, then they’re bad, then they’re good . . . Messam’s been consistently good.

“He was a good roommate, too. We’d always go out to eat together and stuff. You hang out with your roommate, it can sometimes get awkward, right? Especially when you’re competing against the guy for a spot.

“But it was a healthy competition with him so it was all good.”

Older, wiser, more accomplished, that competition continues Friday.

The Winnipeg-born Harris, out of the CJFL Vancouver Island Raiders, spent 2010 on the Leos’ practice roster. Messam, two years older, toted the rock only 23 times for 92 yards that year.

During training camp 2011, Messam was flipped to the Eskimos for a fifth-round draft pick. By the halfway point of the same year, the Andrew Harris Era was opening to acclaim in Vancouver.

“No. 1, he’s a very smart football player,’’ lauds Messam. “He’s been around the game a long time. Great speed, great strength. A lot of defenders look at his size, his stature and think they can hit him up high.

“Uh uh.

“His feet are always moving, he’s always breaking tackles.”

Stamps’ D-line coach Corey Mace, a product of Port Moody, B.C., agrees.

“His ability and to catch the ball out of the backfield and create put him above other backs in the league. But I’m biased, he’s a Canadian kid and spent a lot of time in B.C.”

Messam at full throttle, as everyone knows, is akin to trying to stop a grand piano on rollers while waiting at the bottom of a long, sharply-inclined ramp.

“In my life?” whistles Westerman, asked to name the most punishing back he’d ever faced.

“Adrian Peterson’s pretty big. What’s the guy in Cleveland. He was on the Madden cover . . .” Puzzled expression. “Can’t remember (the retired Peyton Hillis).

“Definitely, though, Messam’s one of the biggest running backs anybody’s played.”

For the better part of an eternity – or at least so it’s seemed – Harris and Jon Cornish vied for the unofficial title of Best Canadian Back, annually locked in a positional/nationality rivalry primarily created and then nurtured by others.

“I had to listen about that rivalry that you guys created for years,’’ chided Messam. “I sat back. I know what I can do. People seem to forget I was the first one to get Most Outstanding Canadian after Sean Millington. Not Jon.

“I knew that once I had more opportunity, I could do what I’m doing now. But I’ve always rooted for those guys, playing my position and being Canadian.”

With Cornish a year retired and the Stamps’ No. 33 relishing his second Most Outstanding Canadian award in 2016, Messam has slipped seamlessly into the debate.

“I just think those are two of the top running backs in the CFL,’’ parries Westerman. “You don’t have to distinguish between Canadian and American.

“The things they can do not only with the ball in their hands but on pass routes. Jerome can take a check-down and from a five-yard gain turn it into maybe, oh, a 25.

“Same thing with Andrew.

“They’re very different in style but they’re both great players.”

The two men have gone their separate ways, of course, but the CFL being a notoriously tight-knit community, the old ties, those baby-steps BC days, remain strong.

“We still stay in contact a little bit,’’ says Harris. “It’s been a good friendship.”

Messam feels the same.

“Back then, man,’’ he concedes. “I was a little more open and free, just be happy playing ball. He was in his room most of the time studying plays.

“We’ve been around each other for a long time. We’ve played as teammates, stayed in touch – texts, phone calls. He’s very responsible. He had a daughter very young. Back then, he was always about ‘I want to stay focused so I can do the best for my daughter.’

“So I’ve seen him mature as a man.

“It’s been great to watch his career take off the way it has.”

Right back at ya, it’s safe to say.