Doing it all, from the OL to the OR
said in the street-side restaurant of a downtown Toronto hotel. “We’ve got to be there before the OR starts, so we’re beginning at, like, 7 or 7:30 in the morning.
“But, we’re done early enough, so I can still train properly and be in shape. I have lots of time to do more than just lifting to stay in shape.”
In doing this, Duvernay-Tardif is merely augmenting his medical knowledge in his quest to become, some time early next spring, the first man in more than 60 years to earn his M.D. while playing in the NFL. (The Pro Football Hall of Fame says the most recent player to do so probably was Chicago Bears receiver Bill McColl, in 1955. McColl later became an orthopaedic surgeon.)
“I’d maxed out my emergency rotation,” Duvernay-Tardif said. “And anaesthesia has a lot to do with physiology, and also a lot of skills like intubating people. We need that in emergency. So I’m practising with that — the effects of different drugs and seeing the immediate effect on people.”
This, after Duvernay-Tardif concluded his requisite post-graduate clinical training earlier this off-season. From early February through early May, the fourth-year NFLer worked rotational months in geriatrics, at his forte (emergency-room trauma) and at a small Quebec hospital that specializes in treating burns and toxidromes. The morning after the conclusion of the latter, he flew to Kansas City to join the Chiefs’ voluntary spring practices, in progress.
Duvernay-Tardif is scheduled to complete his anaesthesiology stint on July 25. Less than 48 hours later, on the 27th, he is due to report to Chiefs training camp. “I prefer it like this,” he said. Understand it’s a firm commitment, too. He can’t just drop in and drop out, on days of his choosing. The 26-year-old had to pull an extra shift this past Saturday just to free himself Monday to speak in Toronto, at a conference that included his charitable LDT Foundation’s new sponsor: Egg producers from his home povince (Fédération des producteurs d’oeufs du Québec.)
Before that event, DuvernayTardif sat down for an interview with Postmedia.
To put his huge new contract in perspective, two things. First, LDT has become the second highest-paid Canadian football player in history, after Dallas Cowboys defensive end Tyrone Crawford of Windsor, Ont. Secondly, DuvernayTardif’s $20-million guarantee is nearly the equivalent of one-third of all 2017 CFL player contracts.
He said he’s shy to talk about personal finances. But when asked how his life has changed, or will soon change, as a result of hitting so lucrative a jackpot, Duvernay-Tardif said, well, it hasn’t changed.
He figured out how much money he lived on during each of his first three NFL seasons, and has arranged to continue living off that amount — and will sock away all the rest.
“Hey, I take economy class when I travel, too,” he quipped.
“Honestly, I was happy before all that happened with my lifestyle, and I’m still happy the same way,” he said, in his vastly improved but still occasionally choppy English. “When I signed that second contract it was kind of a surprise, because I never expected for it to happen so quickly. But I took a long time to think with my parents and my girlfriend about how I wanted to manage that.
“I try to not let it change me. Because it’s hard. New friends, they’re hard to make for the right reasons. So you want to keep your old friends and be the same guy yourself, I guess.”
Duvernay-Tardif is a rare NFL player who earned a second contract a year before completion of his rookie four-year deal, after having not played a down as a rookie. He just wasn’t ready to play in 2014; the jump from Canadian college football is still that steep.
Duvernay-Tardif said he is feeling the pressure in 2017 to play up to his pricey contract.
“Yeah, I think it’s not pressure to make bigger plays, but pressure to make every play the same. On the offensive line, it’s not about the great plays you make as much as how mistake-free you are ... I want to be worth the money they invested in me. So I think it’s more about stability than about being more explosive on one play — consistency.”
It’s clear Duvernay-Tardif is proud in recent years of shining in the classroom, the operating room, the emergency room and on an athletic field. A stuffed bank account is mere gravy, he said.
“That wasn’t my main goal. The (second) contract has been awesome, and is a great vote of confidence and all that, but my first vision and my ultimate goal was to get my M.D. by the end of my rookie contract, in 2018. I’m on course to do that.
“That’s what I believe in — to push the model of the student-athlete to the highest level, and show people it’s possible to do it.”