This Friday at Brampton City Hall, Toronto Argonaut players from the city will be making an appearance celebrating their recent Grey Cup win.
The event will feature players on the team for the Flower City and will have free Argos themed festivities by local Brampton businesses.
Some of the players attending will be defensive back Royce Metchie and defensive linemen Sam Acheampong and Robbie Smith.
Smith was born and raised in Brampton and feels an immense amount of pride bringing a championship back to his hometown and hopes he can be a role model to youth players.
“I’m really excited to bring it to Brampton just cause I grew up there and everything and it means so much to me so I think regardless it’ll be amazing and an opportunity not a lot of people get to do,” he said.
Smith played football at every level in the area from Brampton Bulldogs Youth Football and in high school at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School. He believes the skill level and athletes in Brampton are better and tougher than most.
“The city has such a high immigration rate and everybody around is working so hard trying to make a better life,” he said.
“Most of us that come from Brampton are first or second generation Canadians so just that hardworking mentality to come to work every day and to put your best effort to know that something better is coming for you in the future and I think its what separates Brampton from other places,”
Brampton talent has been seen in football today like Los Angles Chargers wide receiver Josh Palmer and Houston Texans wide receiver John Metchie III, brother of Toronto’s Royce.
The Metchie brothers grew up playing football in Brampton. Royce went on to be drafted by the Calgary Stampeeders in the 25th pick of the third round in the 2018 CFL draft. He was later traded at the beginning of the 2022 season to his hometown team in the Argos.
John Metchie III went on to play college football at the University of Alabama and was selected 44th overall in Round 2 of the 2022 NFL Draft. John credits his success to the relationship he had with Royce.
Fellow defensive linemen Deionte Knight isn’t from Brampton but notes the differences between athletes from the Flower City and how the three Brampton players are all down-to-earth guys and great leaders.
“As a young guy you can learn a lot from three guys like that who are all hard working and you can see that in their mannerisms and the way they carry themselves that they were raised in very hardworking families and you can see that in their daily habits,” he said.
Smith notes that the celebration so far has been fun but admits the team got back to the gym just a week after the championship win in December and starting to chase the next Grey Cup.
“A week after I think so we definitely enjoyed it and sat back for a couple days and then back in the gym and started my program,” he said.
Knight added to Smith by saying his hopes for next season are to win the second Grey Cup in a row for Toronto.
“The goal of our team is to win the Grey Cup again and its the same goal as every other team in this league,” he said. “We are going to make sure this offseason that we are prepared in every facet we can to make sure that dream happens again.”