Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a native of Montreal, Canada has signed a five year contract extension with the Kansas City Chiefs which could be worth as much as $41.25 million with $20 million guaranteed. This would make the current McGill University medical student the highest paid Canadian ever in the NFL and one of the league’s top paid guards.
A sixth-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, Duvernay-Tardif has started 30 games over the past two years after essentially redshirting as a rookie. He is one of the most interesting players in today’s NFL. In addition to playing football, he is also in the late stages of getting his medical degree from McGill. And he has taken two year-long sailing trips with his family.
As Duvernay-Tardif told Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette:
“I’m doing a geriatrics rotation, but I had to ask my supervisor for a day off when this contract thing came up. I still pinch me when I realize what’s happened over the last thee years.I played at McGill for fun because football was my passion. Medical school was also my passion. I was trying to combine both and after my third year, I realized I had some opportunity in football. People were saying ‘he’s going to be a good player in the CFL.”
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke with ESPN.com about his starting right guard:
“The way he’s wired is just different. He’s brilliant, but he can just get down and just be dirty tough. He’s able to separate that. But that dirty tough part, I don’t want him if he’s an orthopedic surgeon to do my knee replacement with that attitude. You understand what I’m saying?”
Duvernay-Tardif met the media Tuesday at Pain dans les voiles, the bakery his parents own in Montreal:
“With my crazy schedule with the hospital and football and training, when I want to see my friends, I come here. I grab a coffee and I know they’ll be here to listen to me and help me. It was important to come back to my roots, to where I used to work not so long ago and where I still serve some customers.”
On Wednesday, Duvernay-Tardif will return to his geriatric rounds. He has four months of medical school to go before he graduates, but his progress has been slowed by the Chiefs’ success.
“I’ll do two months this year and two months next year. I was hoping to finish sooner, but the Chiefs made the playoffs the last two seasons and that took some time away from me. I don’t know how football is going to affect my residency, but I definitely plan to practise medicine in Quebec in the future.”
Sources: Montreal Gazette, NFL.com