Messam leads all active CFLers with three career 1,000-yard seasons and is third in yards with 4,468. It’s a remarkable turn of events for a guy who in 2013 was traded from Edmonton to Montreal for a sixth-round draft pick and then was released the following year because the Alouettes said his salary was too high for his projected role as a fullback.
In a sign of how Canadian tailback talent has blossomed in recent years, two of three active rushing leaders – Messam and Andrew Harris of the Blue Bombers, who is No. 1 with 5,233 yards – are homegrown.
In addition, Cornish and Messam have combined to win four of the past five CFL rushing crowns after only one Canadian – Ottawa’s Orville Lee in 1988 – had accomplished the feat in the previous 55 years.
The only non-Stamps to win the rushing crown over the past nine seasons are a pair of Montreal Alouettes – Brandon Whitaker in 2011 and Tyrell Sutton in 2015 – and Winnipeg’s Fred Reid in 2010.
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