Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is moving on. The famous Quebec guard announced his retirement from sports today, having not obtained a contract for the 2023-2024 NFL season.
The image stays in mind. That of a LDT all smiles, wearing the number 76 of the Kansas City Chiefs, celebrating his team’s victory in the Super Bowl alongside an ecstatic Patrick Mahomes. The image of a Quebecer at the top of the NFL. The image of a great success accomplished by a colossus quickly became the pride of his native province.
It was February 2020. The Chiefs won 31-20 against the 49ers from San Francisco. Guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, with his 6 feet 5 inches on the offensive line, helped his quarterback shine, especially during a 10-point comeback in the fourth quarter.
PHOTO JEFF ROBERSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif wore number 76 with the Kansas City Chiefs.
That night was the culmination of a six-year run with the Chiefs under Andy Reid. Drafted by Kansas City in the sixth round (200e in total) in 2014, Duvernay-Tardif would not make his first start until September 13, 2015, during the first meeting of the season against the Houston Texans. It was the start of a great career with the Missouri team, he who would become a pillar of the starting lineup for the next four seasons.
“I met with 10 NFL head coaches before the draft in 2014,” LDT said in 2018, when he obtained his doctorate in medicine at McGill. And Coach Reid was one of the few who thought my medical school was a positive. He told me I had such another good opportunity [la médecine] that I wouldn’t play football if it wasn’t a passion. His mother was one of the first women to graduate from medicine at McGill, so he knew what that entailed. »
The consecration
But before the great honors of 2020, he experienced the year of consecration in 2017: he signed a five-year contract extension worth more than $42 million. This pact made him one of the highest paid guards on the circuit at the time.
“It’s a beautiful story,” he explained to the media the day after signing his contract, in February 2017. “But it wouldn’t be as great without my family, my friends, my best friend. [et agent] Sasha [Ghavami] and everyone who was there. It’s really a great show of confidence and recognition from the Kansas City Chiefs who gave me this contract even though they weren’t obligated to do so. »
At the end of the 2017-2018 season, Duvernay-Tardif made history by becoming the first active NFL player to earn a medical degree. At his graduation in May 2018, he told The Press having had this “vision” of “graduating and being the first doctor to step onto a football field”.
“It was very important to me,” he said. It’s an indescribable feeling! I am proud. This is one of the first times I’ve ever been proud of myself, and I’m not ashamed to say it. »
“I remember having to sleep in the locker room at McGill before practices in addition to my clinical rotations. Four years later, I am graduating in the tent with the 2018 cohort, it is truly a privilege. »
Success… and physical glitches
In 2018, he suffered a fractured fibula during the fifth game of the season. He only returned to the game during the playoff match against the New England Patriots, in the final of the American League championship, which ended with a defeat for the Chiefs.
After the 2020 Super Bowl victory, LDT agreed to restructure his contract to help the Chiefs free up space under the salary cap.
Obviously, COVID-19 hits a month after the victory in the final. The Quebecer chooses to put aside his NFL season to lend a hand in CHSLDs, while continuing his training as a doctor.
Because if he quickly became a regular in Andy Reid’s training after his debut, he will have played only one full season so far while avoiding injuries, his first. He is therefore also taking advantage of 2020 to give his body a break.
In an interview with host Gregory Charles during a charity evening organized by the Montreal General Hospital Foundation in November 2020, LDT explains that it is mainly the wear and tear injuries that “hurt” him, despite the fracture of his fibula in 2018.
“My sport is very repetitive,” he said. Sixteen times a year, sixty-five times a game, I have contact with a bigger player, who comes like a train, and I have to protect Patrick Mahomes. These are wounds that I will still feel in 20 or 30 years. »
Rewards beyond sport
Her dedication to CHSLDs during COVID times has allowed her to obtain honors such as one of the titles of “Athlete of the Year” of the Sports Illustrated.
He was also awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy, which has since become the North Star Award, an honor which rewards the best Canadian athletes annually, jointly with soccer star Alphonso Davies. His commitment to CHSLDs also earned him the prestigious Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Prize, awarded to the ESPYS in 2021.
“He lacked arms and people,” he said at the time. I did not go there as a doctor, but as a nurse/beneficiary attendant/volunteer/caregiver. Above all, I felt like I was part of a movement of people who raised their hands to contribute and be part of the solution. »
His white doctor’s coat is now on display at the American Football Hall of Fame.
End of career
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif’s journey with the Chiefs ended on November 2, 2021: he was traded to the New York Jets. “Joining the Jets gives me the best chance to play,” he wrote on Twitter after the announcement, having been sidelined for a full season.
He played eight games, including seven as a starter, but did not participate in the playoffs. Without a contract at the end of the season, he ended up reaching an agreement with the Jets who offered him a contract with the practice squad. LDT eventually made the first team in December, and played five games in what would become his final NFL season.
The football player therefore begins the transition to new professional skies. He begins his medical residency in the summer of 2022. His career in the Quebec media is already well underway: he hosted the documentary series I have a questionbroadcast on Canal D in 2021. He also became spokesperson for the Federation of Quebec Milk Producers.
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is also involved in the foundation bearing his name, which promotes healthy lifestyle habits for young people in Quebec through arts and sport.
He also gets his hands dirty in his parents’ business, quite literally. LDT had already become the owner of the bakery Le pain dans les voiles in Montreal during the pandemic, alongside his long-time partner, Sasha Ghavami. In April 2023, he did the same with the Mont-Saint-Hilaire branch, in his native region.
At the time of retirement from sports, the options are vast for the former football player favorite of Quebecers.