“I’m going to prioritize medicine" - NFL lineman to sideline football to focus on being doctor for second time since 2020
Offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif will begin a residency program at a Montreal-area hospital in July and the free-agent offensive lineman is not retiring from the NFL.
Duvernay-Tardif stated that he’ll take care of medical prerequisites to become a physician before re-evaluating his career in September, leaving the door open for him to play this season.
He says he’ll be prioritizing medicine for now:
“I’m going to prioritize medicine . . . and we’ll see in September if there’s a fit. After eight years in the NFL, and I don’t want to sound pretentious by saying this, but I think I’ve earned the right to do what’s best for me and not just for football and kind of bet on myself a little bit.”
Just spoke to Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and veteran OL is putting football on hold. He’ll begin his medical residency next month. An unrestricted FA, the SB champion isn’t retiring. He says he got four offers from NFL clubs and will reassess their interest - and his - in September.
He concluded his point by asserting that he’s fine with the risk and is confident that there will be an NFL offer come September but wants it to be on his terms:
“I’m really comfortable with the risk, and I’m pretty confident there’s going to be an offer on the table in September if I want it, and if I want it, I’ll take it. If medicine is going well and I feel like I’ve got to be out there in front of 80,000 people to play the sport I love, well, I’ll go but I think I want it to be more on my terms.”
He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft, starting 57 games for the Chiefs from 2014 to 2019. In the 2019 season, he won his first Super Bowl with Kansas City. The offensive lineman last played with the New York Jets in the 2021 season, starting seven games.
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif opted out of the 2020 NFL Season
Duvernay-Tardif opted out of the 2020 season to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He was an orderly at a long-term care facility near his hometown of Montreal, Canada. He wrote on social media that it was difficult but had to follow his convictions to opt-out of the 2020 season:
"This is one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make in my life but I must follow my convictions and do what I believe is right for me personally. That is why I have decided to take the Opt Out Option negotiated by the League and the NFLPA and officially opt out of the 2020 NFL season."
The free agent offensive lineman continued, saying that being on the frontline gave him a different point of view of the pandemic. He now says that if he was to take any risks, he'd do it for his patients:
"Being at the frontline during this offseason has given me a different perspective on this pandemic and the stress it puts on individuals and our healthcare system. I cannot allow myself to potentially transmit the virus in our communities simply to play the sport that I love. If I am to take risks, I will do it caring for patients."
My decision regarding the 2020 NFL season https://t.co/jrY3nZfNWO
He has a doctorate in medicine and a master’s in surgery from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine, where he graduated back in May 2018.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Duvernay-Tardif when September comes.