Notebook: Jerome Messam has Hall of Fame connections

WINNIPEG — Jerome Messam drew some inspiration from the Class of 2018.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders tailback was a teammate of Brent Johnson with the B.C. Lions in 2010 and of Scott Flory with the Montreal Alouettes in 2013.

On Wednesday, Johnson and Flory were named as two of the inductees for the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2018. Like Messam, Johnson and Flory are Canadian-born players.

“That’s huge motivation,” Messam said Thursday during Mark’s CFL Week. “Hopefully I can get there like them one day.

“We have a lot of American talent in our league, but I’m not sure if the Canadians get the accolades or as much buzz as some of the big-name American guys. Guys like Brent Johnson and Scott Flory, they’ve worked hard and they deserve the recognition they’re getting.”

Johnson was a defensive end with the Lions for 11 seasons. He led the CFL in sacks twice, was named the CFL’s most outstanding Canadian twice and won the award as the league’s most outstanding defensive player once.

“Brent had an amazing career,” Messam said. “I didn’t really get to play with him too long — I was only there for one season with him — but for him to be a Canadian defensive end who played at the level he did for his career, that speaks to his work ethic and to who he is as a player.”

The Regina-born Flory played in 241 regular-season games, 17 playoff contests and eight Grey Cup games over 15 seasons with the Alouettes. He won the award as the league’s most outstanding lineman twice and was a CFL all-star nine times.

After retiring as a player, he became the president of the CFL Players’ Association and now serves as head coach of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

“Scott was just great to be around,” Messam said. “He took the young guys under his wing and made sure everybody knew what was going on in house and out, as far as him being a CFLPA rep. He coached you on what you needed to know and what you needed to read up on to help your progression in the CFL.”

Messam also has a connection to another member of the Class of 2018. Former Als and Lions defensive back Barron Miles was an assistant coach when Messam played in B.C., and also was on Saskatchewan’s staff when Messam was a member of the Roughriders in 2014.

Paul Brule, Frank Cosentino, Tommy Hugo and Hank Ilesic also are to be enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2018. The induction ceremony is set for Sept. 14 in Hamilton.

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The CFL announced this week that it will be using a new style of ball in 2018.

The football will be made of the leather used in the construction of NFL balls and will be the same size as the balls used in that league. The CFL ball will have the laces used in Canadian footballs and will have the familiar white stripes.

The change won’t be an issue for CFL players.

“A football’s a football to me,” Roughriders receiver Naaman Roosevelt said. “Back home, sometimes we just have an NFL ball so we work out with those. It’s all the same.”

“For the receivers, the biggest difference will be the size,” added Hamilton Tiger-Cats receiver Luke Tasker, who has been training with Roosevelt in Buffalo. “We’re not going to feel the laces that much as receivers.

“I actually really like the NFL ball. We grew up playing with it, so it’ll be cool.”

Toronto Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray also wasn’t worried about the change.

“We’ve thrown so many different kinds of footballs growing up that I think it should be fine,” he said. “It might take a minor little adjustment, but I’ve never really been too picky on the footballs. I don’t see it being a problem.”

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Saskatchewan has a new quarterbacks coach for 2018 and Ray knows a thing or two about him.

In 2017, Ray worked with Steve Walsh when the latter was a senior assistant to Argos head coach Marc Trestman.

“He’s a great guy,” Ray said of Walsh, who played quarterback in the NFL for 11 seasons. “Obviously he’s a quarterback, so he sees the game the same way as the rest of us quarterbacks do.

“He had some great drills. We did a ton of drill work and I could see that pay off in games: ‘Oh yeah, that’s the drill we did.’ I was able to take that from the practice field to the games. He does a great job of getting you ready for those different situations.”

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Roosevelt is in Winnipeg for CFL Week, but his attention is divided.

The women’s basketball team from his alma mater, the University of Buffalo, is to face the University of South Carolina on Saturday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

The Bulls entered the tournament seeded 11th in their region, but they thrashed sixth-seeded South Florida 102-79 and then bounced third-seeded Florida State 86-65.

The Bulls men’s team also was participating in March Madness, but it lost out in the Round of 32. Buffalo, a 13th seed in its region, beat fourth-seeded Arizona 89-68 before falling to fifth-seeded Kentucky 95-75.

“I’m loving it,” Roosevelt said. “Everywhere you go (in Buffalo), people want to talk about the basketball teams.

“I watched both of the women’s games and they’ve been blowing teams out, not just beating them by a little. For the guys to beat Arizona, that’s one of the greatest upsets I’ve seen and probably the greatest upset in basketball in school history.”

For a Bulls alumnus and Buffalo resident, March has been a treat for Roosevelt.

“I’ve started to wear my UB stuff a lot more,” he said with a grin. “We’ve been seeing a lot of people support them and it has been awesome.”