Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (; born February 11, 1991) is a Canadian football guard for the New York Jets of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played university football and attended medical school at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, Canada, before being drafted by the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...

in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Duvernay-Tardif is only the fourth medical school graduate to play in the NFL. He was made a Knight of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Governo ...

in 2019 and enrolled at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

to get a Master of Public Health degree the following year. Duvernay-Tardif opted out of the 2020 NFL season due to concerns over the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and returned to Canada to work in a care facility. As a result of his efforts on and off the field in 2020, he was named a co-winner of the Lou Marsh Award, given annually to Canada's top athlete, as well as the ''Sports Illustrated'' Sportsperson of the Year. He returned to the NFL in 2021 after being traded to the New York Jets.

Early life

Duvernay-Tardif was born in

Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec Mont-Saint-Hilaire () is an off-island suburb of Montreal in southeastern Quebec, Canada, on the Richelieu River in the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 18,200. The cit ...

, and grew up in

. He started playing football at the age of 14, until his family went on a year long sailing trip to the Bahamas. After their return, he resumed playing football at age 16 for his high school. His native language is French.

University career

Duvernay-Tardif attended

, where he was member of the McGill Men's football team from 2010 to 2013. In his final year, he won the J. P. Metras Trophy, recognizing the best lineman in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (now

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the C ...

) system, and was named an All-Canadian for the second consecutive season. He balanced university football with medical school. In a 2014 article in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'', Joan Niesen said that he "was practicing just once a week—and he was still the best college player in Canada."

Professional career

Duvernay-Tardif played in the 2014 East-West Shrine Game, in which he was part of

Jerry Glanville Jerry Michael Glanville (born October 14, 1941) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Alabama Airborne of Major League Football. He played football at Northern Michigan University in the early 1960s, and is a former NASCAR ...

's East team that defeated the West 23–13. Duvernay-Tardif did not receive an invitation to the

NFL Scouting Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foo ...

. On March 27, 2014, Duvernay-Tardif held a personal pro day in

that was attended by nine NFL teams and four

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) teams.

CFL Draft

In the CFL's Amateur Scouting Bureau final rankings, Duvernay-Tardif was ranked as the best eligible player for the 2014 CFL Draft, a position he held throughout the entirety of the season. However, due to the uncertainty as to his availability as a result of his selection in the NFL Draft, he fell in the draft. He was drafted by the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-o ...

in the third round (19th overall).

Kansas City Chiefs

2014

The

selected Duvernay-Tardif in the sixth round (200th overall) of the 2014 NFL Draft. Duvernay-Tardif was the 15th offensive tackle drafted in 2014. Since the inception of the

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

, Duvernay-Tardif is the tenth player to be chosen from a Canadian university. On May 14, 2014, the Kansas City Chiefs signed Duvernay-Tardif to a four-year, $2.34 million

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...

that includes a signing bonus of $100,300. Throughout training camp, Duvernay-Tardif competed to be a starting guard against Zach Fulton, Jeffrey Linkenbach, Rishaw Johnson, Mike McGlynn, and Rokevious Watkins. Head coach

Andy Reid Andrew Walter Reid (born March 19, 1958) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). Reid was previously head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2012. From 200 ...

named Duvernay-Tardif the fifth offensive guard on the depth chart to start the regular season, behind Jeff Allen, Zach Fulton, Jeff Linkenbach, and Mike McGlynn.

2015

On September 13, 2015, Duvernay-Tardif made his first career start for the Chiefs in the season opener against the Houston Texans. He went on to play all 16 games with 13 starts for the Chiefs in 2015.

2016

In the 2016 season, Duvernay-Tardif started all 14 games he played in at right guard for the Chiefs.

2017

On February 28, 2017, the Kansas City Chiefs signed Duvernay-Tardif to a five-year, $42.36 million contract that includes $20.20 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $10 million.

2018

Duvernay-Tardif started the first five games of the 2018 season at right guard before suffering a fractured

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity i ...

in Week 5. He was placed on injured reserve on October 9. Chiefs head coach

said he will not be out for the season and will be reactivated at some point later in the season. However, his injury was worse than originally thought, and he didn't start practicing again until the last week of the schedule. He was activated off injured reserve on January 15, 2019, prior to the Chiefs AFC Championship matchup against the New England Patriots.

2019

In 2019, Duvernay-Tardif played 14 games. On February 2, 2020, the Chiefs went on to win

Super Bowl LIV Super Bowl LIV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2019 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football Conferenc ...

, their first championship in 50 years.

2020

On April 22, 2020, the Chiefs restructured Duvernay-Tardif's contract to free up salary cap space. On July 24, he announced via his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account he chose to opt-out of playing during the 2020 season as a precaution due to COVID-19. Duvernay-Tardif had been working as an

orderly In healthcare, an orderly (also known as a ward assistant, nurse assistant or healthcare assistant) is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions. The highest ro ...

at a Montreal long-term care facility during the pandemic. He was the first NFL player to announce he would not play the season because of COVID-19. His role in fighting COVID off the field in 2020 resulted in ''

'' naming Duvernay-Tardif one of their Sportspeople of the Year. For his efforts both on and off the field in 2020, he was named a co-winner of the

Lou Marsh Trophy The Northern Star Award, formerly known as the Lou Marsh Trophy, the Lou Marsh Memorial Trophy and Lou Marsh Award, is a trophy that is awarded annually to Canada's top athlete, professional or amateur. It is awarded by a panel of journalists, wi ...

, which is awarded annually to Canada's top athlete for the year.

2021

On July 10, 2021, Duvernay-Tardif was named the recipient of the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award at the

2021 ESPYs The 2021 ESPY Awards were the 29th annual ceremony of the ESPY Award, held on July 10, 2021 at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City and broadcast on ABC. Actor Anthony Mackie served as the host. The awards aired on ESPN and ESPN2 on July ...

for his decision to opt out of the 2020 NFL season to help fight the global COVID-19 pandemic.

New York Jets

Duvernay-Tardif was traded to the New York Jets on November 2, 2021, in exchange for tight end Daniel Brown. On November 18, 2022, after going unsigned all offseason and into the season, Duvernay-Tardif was signed to the Jets practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on December 7.

Personal life

Duvernay-Tardif is the fourth NFL player to have graduated from medical school, and as of the 2018 season, the only active player. He graduated from

McGill University Faculty of Medicine The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It was established in 1829 after the Montreal Medical Institution was incorporated into McGill College as the college's first faculty; it was t ...

in May 2018 with a Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery (M.D., C.M.). He primarily studied during the off-season prior to mandatory off-season workouts. He had the support of the Chiefs coaching staff, especially head coach

, whose mother also graduated from McGill's medical school. Following his graduation, he petitioned the NFL to add the title "M.D." on the back of his jersey. The league denied his request, prompting fans and writers to criticize the league's decision. He has not yet completed his postgraduate medical training. Duvernay-Tardif provided the convocation address at McGill's 2020 graduation ceremony. In 2020, he also started studying at

to get a Master of Public Health. During the 2018 offseason, Duvernay-Tardif worked as a feature reporter for the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

(CBC) during its coverage of the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 동계 올림픽, Icheon sip-pal nyeon Donggye Ollimpik), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (french: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; ko, 제23회 동계 올림픽, Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpi ...

. He is also a member of the NFLPA Health and Safety Committee to protect the health of players. In 2019, Duvernay-Tardif was made a Knight of the

. He is the grandson of former Quebec cabinet minister Guy Tardif. During the

, Duvernay-Tardif wanted to help combat the pandemic and returned to Quebec to work at CHSLD Gertrude-Lafrance, a long-term care facility in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. He was profiled in a '' TSN'' documentary, "Front Line", which was later nominated for the best sports feature segment at the

9th Canadian Screen Awards The 9th annual Canadian Screen Awards were held in the week of May 17 to 20, 2021, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2020.Barry Hertz, "How one Canadian arts institution is rebuilding amid the p ...

Footnotes

References

External links

McGill Redmen biographyYouTube video: 'The First Active NFL Player to Become a Doctor: Blocking for Mahomes & Saving Lives'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duvernay-Tardif, Laurent 1991 births Living people American football offensive guards American football offensive tackles Canadian expatriate American football people in the United States Canadian football offensive linemen Canadian players of American football French Quebecers Gridiron football people from Quebec Kansas City Chiefs players Lou Marsh Trophy winners McGill Redbirds football players McGill University Faculty of Medicine alumni New York Jets players People from Montérégie Players of Canadian football from Quebec