‘The human connection makes a difference’
Lineman Misses chiefs with Playoffs here, but he has a higher calling Now
However well things might go for his Kansas City Chiefs teammates when they battle the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, Laurent Duvernay-tardif knows one thing is going to piss him off.
The TV broadcast won’t show his offensive line mates in action nearly as much as he’d like.
Two days after getting vaccinated against COVID-19 — and three days before he resumes helping out as a part-time, front-line medical worker at a Montreal nursing home — the 29-year-old will watch this weekend’s second AFC divisional playoff game from his Montreal home on his big projector screen.
Last August, Duvernay-tardif made the difficult decision to opt out of playing what would have been his seventh NFL season. He was the first of 60-some NFL players to opt out over COVID-19 concerns. When healthy, the native of Montreal’s Mont-saint-hilaire neighbourhood had started every game for the Chiefs at right guard since 2015, a year after they drafted him out of Mcgill University in the sixth round.
The 6-5, 321-pound man his coaches and teammates call “Larry” badly wanted to help the Chiefs defend the Super Bowl championship they won last February. But he felt a greater moral calling — to not potentially contribute to further spread of the coronavirus, and instead lend a medical helping hand back at home, as one of only a handful of active NFL players ever (and the only one in the past half-century) to graduate from med school.
In a phone interview with Postmedia from home on Thursday afternoon, Duvernay-tardif touched on how badly he misses football and his Chiefs teammates, and what worries him about these playoffs.
In this edited Q&A, he also shared what it’s been like on the pandemic’s front lines, contributing (as he describes it) in a small way compared to those who do heroic work full-time:
“Having that human connection is what really makes a difference. At school we learned how to treat patients. Now I’m learning how to care for patients. It’s really different.”
Q Do you do a lot of nervous pacing during games, and swear at the TV like every other Chiefs fan?
A “Yeah, especially when the Chiefs were missing, like, half of their O-line. The second half of the season has been so stressful. I feel like they started so well — powerful offence — but for the last few weeks they’ve been winning, but differently than we got used to, or at least what I expect. I’m
a little anxious for Sunday because the Browns played pretty well against the Steelers, and in playoff football you cannot make mistakes. Turnovers are super crucial. I feel like we’ve got to come together on the details, so we don’t make mistakes that could cost us a game.”
Q How much do you miss it — more since August, or less?
A “Way more. I feel like after a few years in the NFL I’m a guy who loves to perform when it gets cold, and the stakes are high.”
Q What’s it like watching Chiefs games on TV?
A “I feel like I watch football the same way I study the game in getting ready for an opponent, because that’s all I know. So announcers are just talking and I’m like, ‘AHH!
Get away!’ I need to focus to see how everything is going. How’s Patrick (Mahomes)? Is he nervous, is he calm? How’s the O-line? I feel like I can’t pick up that detail, and I’m so frustrated
Q What are your football playing plans going forward, the 2021 season and beyond?
A “I’m trying to use this year off to show up in spring mini-camp, or whatever we can show up in Kansas City for, and be in the best shape possible. I feel like I’m on my way to be stronger ... than I was last year on the same date.”
Q What are your specific duties at the nursing home?
A “I’ve got my M.D. in medicine but I haven’t started my residency, so I’m not working as a fully qualified doctor in there. I’m basically doing everything from helping to feed and change patients when they need me to do that, to drawing blood, putting in IVS and giving them medication ... I feel like the most important thing is to be there to help. With people not able to have visits with their families at times, because of safety and everything, having that human connection is what really makes a difference ... So what matters most is to make sure that they’re comfortable and they preserve their dignity.”