CHARLOTTE — John Metchie III is incapable of telling a lie.

He tried because he's a good teammate, and when someone says, "Let's play the game, two truths and a lie," he wants to participate.

But, "I try not to lie," the receiver warned, a laugh bubbling up as he gets tickled at himself.

"I mean, everybody kind of does, whether it's a white lie or something, but I definitely try not to. I don't even know where to start."

To be fair, the premise of the game, to share outlandish facts about yourself in hopes of covering up the lie, doesn't favor a guy like John Metchie, who has lived a life marked by unbelievable truths. There's no need to embellish, because the reality is almost unreal.

For example, his first entry into the game: "I've had three or more passports."

That's a truth. Metchie was born in Tawaiin, but moved to West Africa as a young child. He lived in Ghana and Nigeria for years before his family moved to Brampton, Ontario, Canada. He then moved to the States for high school and has been here ever since, playing football, while his family still lives in Toronto.

"Toronto is home, Nigeria is home for me. Taiwan is home for me," he shared. "I think home is like—what's that saying, home is where the heart is. Home for me is where my loved ones are, where my family is."

His second offered fact: "I learned how to use chopsticks before a fork."

A quick deduction proves that one true as well. This is a multifaceted person born in Asia and raised in multiple cultures.

"It was fun because that's all you know," he explained. "It's just change, and it's exciting because you're just adapting to different environments, different ways of being. Going from Africa and coming to North America was a big change. Lots of things were different, but it was exciting."

Metchie is the two-time John Cornish Trophy winner, an annual award given to the top Canadian player in NCAA football, and one of only two players to win twice. His new teammate, Chuba Hubbard, won after the 2019 season. Knowing he'll soon step into a locker room with another proud ambassador for his home country gave the receiver a moment of pause, considering the responsibility they shared.

"It's huge," he answered. "It's huge, just the impact it has on kids that were like us, that are going to school in the area, or just the community back home. But, it's a huge thing and very prideful about that."

Playing for someone or something larger than yourself—whether it be a homeland, family, or yourself beyond football—means simply stepping onto the field is just as important, if not more so, than the results. Over the last four years, Metchie has learned that lesson in more ways than one.

Ahead of his rookie season in the NFL, after being drafted in the second round of the 2022 draft by the Houston Texans, Metchie was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells. Already rehabbing from an ACL tear suffered in the 2021 SEC championship game, he was now facing a year of chemotherapy, on top of the mental fatigue and fear that accompanies such a diagnosis.

"It was just a matter of taking it day by day and making the most of the day," Metchie explained of what he learned most during that process. "Like there was something I had to do each day to get better and progress towards it.

"(It's) like the process of self, right? You help the team by having a good process of self, and that experience only kind of strengthened and solidified that realization."

By the time he was healthy and back on the field, it had been 652 days since he'd played in a football game. The time away, coupled with his immersion in a new offense, meant a tough start and a sparse stat sheet for the receiver who had been All-SEC in college.

During his time with the Texans, Eagles, and Jets (the last two acquired via trade), Metchie has played in 45 games, starting 7. He's hauled in 73 receptions during that time for 686 yards and three touchdowns.

"He's still young and a guy that, he's had some production in this league, hasn't been as consistent as he's wanted to be, but I think there's definitely a lot of upside there and we'll see where it goes," explained general manager Dan Morgan of the signing. "He's going to have a chance to compete like the rest of the guys, and I'm looking forward to seeing that.

"I just think it's another piece that we can add to our receiver room that adds depth and competition in that room, and I think that's what we're trying to do at every spot, is just add as much depth and competition as we can."

There is another intriguing element to the signing. John Metchie's best football came when Bryce Young was on the other end of the throw. The two were teammates at Alabama, and in 2021, Metchie's final college season and the year Young won the Heisman Trophy, the receiver had 96 receptions for 1,142 yards and eight touchdowns.

"Yeah, yeah, I definitely talked to Bryce about him," Morgan admitted. "Obviously, the type of person he is and the player. So yeah, I did my homework there, talking to Bryce…and I know Bryce is really fond of him, not only as a player, but as a person."

It means that as Metchie looks to reestablish himself in this league, proving with full strength and a good situation he can be the playmaker he was promised to be, he'll have familiarity with his QB that can't be taken for granted.

"It will be fun because there's probably a lot of natural instincts from how we learned to play the game in college that we'll both have," said Metchie. "That only helps when you're on the field and competing. That probably saves a lot of time on communication and things like that.

"I think football can be like a chess game. So I think versatility is huge in the sense of being able to adapt and counter and adjust to different schemes or whatever it is; and also styles of play, whether it is deep down the field when you have those opportunities or short.

"A big part of offense, too, is just taking what the defense gives you and not trying to force something that isn't there, so that takes versatility in itself."

His third fact of the game, "Race car driving was my first love," bodes well for someone living in Charlotte, the headquarters of NASCAR, but the other two were both true. This has to be the lie, right?

"Wait, hold on," he smiled. "I think I told three truths. That was my first thing, like go-karting, and I thought I was going to be a driver."

Ok, so John Metchie really can't lie. That means he won the game in his own way, though, right?

"I don't think I did," he cackled.

We'll call it a draw. Because when you've lived a life as remarkable as John Metchie, reality exceeds any fiction.