A PRESCRIPTION FOR LIFE AFTER SPORTS

Former Chiefs player Laurent Duvernay-Tardif on how football prepared him for a medical career— and helping the next generation

- BY JOE KOZLOWSKI

BALANCING ACT

Duvernay-Tardif pictured while playing for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017. He would focus on his medical studies during offseason.

WHEN THE KANSAS CITY CHIEFS LIFTED THE Lombardi Trophy in February 2020, it seemed like a crowning moment. The franchise had won a championship for the first time in 50 years, thanks in large part to the decision to draft Patrick Mahomes in 2017.

Offensive lineman Laurent Duver-nay-Tardif was part of the team celebrating in Miami. Winning the Super Bowl is an impressive feat for any player, let alone one who grew up in Canada and came to football comparatively late in life.

But, in what felt like a blink of an eye, everything changed. COVID-19 shut down North American life. Duvernay-Tardif, who earned his medical degree while playing football, knew what he had to do.

“Initially after winning the Super Bowl, I was pretty frustrated about COVID, like almost in an egocentric way,” he told Newsweek. “It was my year, my offseason.... And then at some point it was like, ‘OK, well, this is not about me.”

“There was a lot of stuff happening in [the] hospital setting, but also in long-term care facilities,” he continued. “In Quebec, those establishments were devastated by COVID because of the frail population and the elderlies. And the government asked for people with a medical background to go back and help. And I raised my hand, and I was a part of that movement. A month and a half after winning the Super Bowl, I was doing my first shift in a long-term care facility in a red zone with my mask, my visor, my gloves.”

A Tale of Two Passions