Akheem Mesidor, the edge rusher from the University of Miami who will be the first Canadian selected in Thursday night’s NFL Draft, took a long time to recognize his own talent.
But the 25-year-old has been surrounded throughout his football journey by people who saw the immense potential in him.
Now a kid who grew up in modest surroundings in Ottawa has reached a stage he didn’t think was possible. He has a chance on Thursday night to become just the fifth Canadian ever selected in the first round of the NFL Draft and the first from the defensive side of the ball.
The list of those who always believed begins with his mother, Carole Richard, who raised seven children mostly on her own, working multiple jobs to keep the lights on – and even sometimes that wasn’t enough.
When her youngest child was struggling with aggression due to a sleep disorder, she put him in football. He took to the game instantly, standing out among his peers even at the Tyke level among eight- and nine-year-olds.
Carole nicknamed her tackle-loving youngster “The Beast” and told him he would play in the NFL one day.
Victor Tedondo remembers the day he first saw a glimpse of Mesidor’s skills.
He was coaching his Orleans Bengals Tyke team against the North Gloucester Giants in a game of eight-and-nine-year-olds that his team was winning handily. But that didn’t stop him from noticing a player on the Giants who wasn’t just the best player on his team, he was the best in the game.
Tedondo, a former University of Ottawa player, had started a place called Gridiron Academy to train young football players with potential for success. Tedondo approached Mesidor and his mother after that Tyke game and told them he wanted him to train at the academy.
It was the start of a relationship that has been a constant in Mesidor’s life ever since that day.
Mesidor puts it bluntly: Without Tedondo and Gridiron Academy, he wouldn’t be where he is today. It’s as plain as the Gridiron Academy tattoo he has on his right arm.
Though Mesidor didn’t see his own pro potential, he believed in “Coach Vic.” When Mesidor abruptly quit playing football at age 14, in part because he believed his mother could no longer afford it, it was Tedondo who convinced him to come back and resume his pursuit of a college scholarship.
Then there are his mentors; those who paved the way and showed him what was possible.
There were a trio of players who played on the Giants team just a few years older than Mesidor, players he saw as real-life superheroes who were showing him what was possible. They had played for the same teams he’d played for and trained at the same place he trained.
When Mesidor’s Giants games where done, he would stay to watch Jonathan Sutherland, Luiji Vilain and Patrice Rene play their games in the next age group up.
Sutherland ended up playing college ball for Penn State, while Vilain went to Michigan, and Rene to North Carolina. And when they returned to Ottawa in their NCAA swag it made Mesidor want to chase his dream even more.
Vilain and Sutherland both went on to stints in the NFL. All three will play in the CFL this season.
Mesidor managed to get the recognition he coveted and accepted a scholarship to the University of West Virgina, where he played for two seasons before transferring to Miami.
Mesidor didn’t grow up an NFL fan, so the significance of his position coach at the University of Miami was at first lost on him. Hall of Fame pass rusher Jason Taylor, who starred for the Akron Zips before launching his NFL career, could relate to Mesidor as someone with a chip on his shoulder who’d been overlooked during much of his own recruiting process.
Mesidor told him he wanted to be the best defensive linemen in the country and Taylor helped him get there, showing him the things it would take to get there and the things that would make him ready to be a pro.
He could sense the way Mesidor responded to being overlooked and he tapped into that emotion to help him reach his potential.
Alongside him on that journey was Rueben Bain Jr., a player Mesidor first met while making a visit to Miami’s campus as he was preparing to leave West Virginia. Bain was a high-school recruit from Miami at the time Mesidor was coming to the Hurricanes via the portal.
They bonded immediately during their first season together. When Mesidor missed time due to injuries early in his Miami tenure, he would stand on the sidelines to study Bain and give him feedback.
They competed at everything they did, bringing out the best in each other. They saw greatness in one another.
On the field, each was able to win off the edges, terrorizing opposing quarterbacks all the way to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in January, the final college contest for each of them.
Along the way they talked about both becoming first-round draft picks. It now appears that may very well happen.
From the Tyke fields of Ottawa to the biggest stage in pro football, Mesidor has always been surrounded by those who saw his destiny before he did.
