Chiefs' Laurent Duvernay-Tardif: Pro athletes have a responsibility to their communities
Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is receiving recognition for the significant sacrifice he made in 2020.
Duvernay-Tardif, who earned a medical doctorate from McGill University in Montreal in 2018, received the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian of the Year Award for stepping away from the NFL for the 2020 season so that he could return to Canada and work on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 30-year-old said after winning the award that he believes community service is part of being a professional athlete.
Duvernay-Tardif is now back with the Chiefs, ready for the 2021 campaign. He said in a recent ESPN article that he has no regrets when it comes to opting out of the 2020 season.
The Super Bowl champion added that working in a long-term care facility over the past year changed his life.
"I always saw medicine as a way to cure people. I wanted to send people back home with good news," Duvernay-Tardif said. "Working on the front lines and in red zones in the long-term care facility was a new environment for me as a medical professional. I quickly realized that, because of COVID, people were not going to be returning home. And it gave me a different perspective on life. It gave me a different perspective on football. It gave me a different perspective on everything."
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