Canadian-born Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, an offensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs, is not your typical NFL player. During the NFL off-season, he’s enrolled in medical school at Canada’s prestigious McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Duvernay-Tardif has one last rotation to complete which he expects to begin in February when the current season ends.
ESPN calls Duvernay-Tardif the most interesting player in the NFL and not just because of his unusual career aspirations. He has taken two yearlong sailing trips around the world with his family and backpacked around Europe when he was 16.
It won’t be possible to do his residency training (likely in emergency medicine) and play in the NFL at the same time. In all likelihood, he’ll start his graduate medical training in 2018, the rare NFL player to give up playing for another career.
Duvernay-Tardif is not the first NFL player to excel in academics. I rooted for the Miami Dolphins growing up and one of my favorite players was All-Star lineman Ed Newman. You can call him Judge Ed Newman, however.