Laurent Duvernay-Tardif built one of the rarest careers in professional sports: NFL offensive lineman, Super Bowl champion and physician.
He was already studying medicine at McGill University when the Kansas City Chiefs selected him in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Instead of abandoning medical school for football, Duvernay-Tardif tried to build both careers at the same time.
In 2018, he earned his medical degree from McGill while still playing in the NFL. The following season, he started at right guard for Kansas City and helped the Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV.
Then came a career decision that made his story even more unusual. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Duvernay-Tardif worked as an orderly in a Quebec long-term care facility and opted out of the 2020 NFL season rather than immediately return to defend the championship.
He eventually returned to football and finished his career with the New York Jets. Across his NFL career, Duvernay-Tardif appeared in 73 games and started 65, according to his NFL career statistics. He announced his retirement from professional football in 2023.
The medical career did not end with a diploma. After football, Duvernay-Tardif returned to clinical training. In July 2026, he officially completed his family-medicine residency and began a one-year fellowship in emergency medicine. McGill reported in August 2026 that he was considering working as a relief family physician in underserved regions of Quebec.
Duvernay-Tardif now belongs in the same extraordinary-career conversation as Myron Rolle, who went from Florida State safety to pediatric neurosurgeon, Nadia Nadim, who combined professional football with medicine, and Eric Heiden, who went from five Olympic gold medals to orthopedic surgery.
What separates his story is that football was never simply followed by medicine. For years, the two careers overlapped. He studied medicine while becoming an NFL starter, won a Super Bowl, stepped away from football during a public-health crisis, returned to the league, retired, and then finished the clinical training required for the next chapter.
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