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When Messam broke into the Canadian Football League in 2010 with the B.C. Lions, the Toronto kid doesn’t try to hide the fact he was just that — a kid.

“I think I came in with a chip on my shoulder,” Messam said. “Obviously, I wanted to go to the NFL and I still feel like I’m an NFL-type player and I could start for any team in the NFL — that’s how I feel. When I came in, I was kind of in a headspace where I felt I was bigger than the CFL and I didn’t want to be here, really. I felt the CFL was always going to be here and I could play here by default. I knew that even when was 13 or 14 years old — no matter what I’ll be able to play in the CFL.”

He wasn’t wrong.

No one has ever doubted Messam’s talent, even back then as a 25-year-old rookie.

These days, Messam is healthy and in an enviable situation with an offence pretty much tailored to his skill-set.

But the path to get to this point was a winding one.

THE TRANSGRESSIONS

The year 2010 wasn’t kind to Messam on the field or off the field.

On the field, he carried the ball just 23 times for 92 yards and two touchdowns.

Off the field, Messam was slapped with an assault charge after hitting a bouncer outside a London, Ont., nightclub, and then had a well-publicized run-in with teammate Paris Jackson inside the Lions locker-room.

“We’re, actually, great friends to this day,” Messam said. “He took me under his wing when I got there and it was just a situation that got out of control and it was kind of like two brothers fighting.”