Alabama WR John Metchie III called three different continents home by the age of 7.
Metchie was born in Taiwan, moved to Ghana at the age of 1, then settled in Canada with his mother and four brothers. They were seeking a better life from the one they had in Africa, making their home outside Toronto while Metchie’s father remained in Africa.
They’ve only spoken a few times since. It’s been over a decade since Metchie and his father spoke.
When Metchie first came to the United States, it was at the age of 14, arriving at a Virginia boarding school with the mindset of becoming a college football player and a pro.
Even after his dreams were nearly derailed because of a scary heart condition, Metchie would not be denied. Even, after he made his mark at Alabama, a painful hip impingement and a shin injury would not keep him off the field as the Crimson Tide were chasing a national championship in 2020.
So if you think the torn ACL he suffered in the SEC championship game against Georgia is going to slow him down, you don’t know how Metchie got to this point.
“My drive comes from a loving family but also from our background, what we had to go through with our financial situation,” Metchie told Yahoo Sports recently. “Our single mom was raising four boys, so we saw how hard she worked. Plus, when I was alone at high school — with no family nearby — I just developed this internal motivation that drives me.”
Metchie declared for the 2022 NFL draft, looking to become what’s believed to be just the third Taiwan-born player to enter the NFL — and almost certainly the first Taiwanese-Ghanaian player in league annals. His goal is to be a first-round pick, although he knows the injury could impact that.
But the way Metchie is feeling now still has him dreaming big.
“I’ve never had any pain with it, still don’t,” he said. “I was…
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