Kansas City Chiefs fans are well aware of the many talents of offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.
Now, football fans nationwide are starting to pay attention. Duvernay-Tardif visited NFL Network's "Good Morning Football" early Friday, and he discussed how it feels to be both a medical student and professional football player.
"It's even a little bit easier than it was during my college degree," Duvernay-Tardif said on the program. "Back at McGill University, I was doing both right at the same time, so I had to be on the field and be in school at the same time. Now, the good thing is I have a little bit of flexibility from McGill and from the Chiefs, so I can do 100 percent football while I'm in Kansas City and then during the offseason, I can find a balance between training and studying, so that's great."
Despite offseason training beginning on April 22, Reid has allowed Duvernay-Tardif to stay in Montreal and finish up his offseason medical work.
"That's the cool thing about coach Reid—that he is letting me pursue my medical career on the side," Duvernay-Tardif said. "I had an extra three weeks in order to finish up and wrap up my exam and everything, and wrapping up my emergency rotation."
RELATED: A Tale of Two Passions
Later in the interview, Duvernay-Tardif talked about his experience with English, which he began learning at McGill back in 2010. Prior to that, all Duvernay-Tardif only understood his native French.
When he left for Kansas City, Duvernay-Tardif considered himself bilingual, but explained he was in for a rude awakening.
"I thought I was bilingual, and I realized I knew nothing about English," he said. "The only English I knew was the medical English, like super proper, so I was not able to chit-chat with people, and I think I'm getting better at it, but it was a shock at the beginning."
Now after four years in Kansas City, he is certainly bilingual, and some of his teammates are opting to learn his language.
"Mitch Morse is working on it," Duvernay-Tardif said. "He's been to Montreal during the offseason because I was doing a football camp over there, and slowly but surely, he's picking up on a couple things and it's really funny."
With Duvernay-Tardif being a doctor, the GMFB panel also wanted to know whether or not he diagnoses teammates' injuries. That, he explained, he leaves to the training staff.
"My job in Kansas City is to play football," he said. "I'm not there to be a doctor or anything. I'm not a doctor yet. I will be in May 2018, so I have some reserve. I think my job is to more explain stuff. People come to me and are like, 'What is this?' and, 'The doctor told me this.' I can explain in simple terms what it is. I would never try to make a diagnosis on the field. I just think it's not my place."
Where it is his place, is continuing to be an inspiration—especially to those who want to pursue two vastly different things.
This piqued the interest of former wide receiver Nate Burleson, who asked him about that.
"For me, if you're passionate about what you're doing, you won't count the hours, you're just going to do it," Duvernay-Tardif said. "I love playing football, I love being in the ER, I love studying in medical school, and I just don't count the hours. I just do it. That's something I'm really proud of is to be able to continue doing those two passions at the same time at the highest level. So many people told me when I was younger—you're going to have to choose. You cannot do medicine and play in the NFL at the same time.
"If you want to play football, you cannot do medicine at the same time. But you can] and that’s what I want to prove. For me, the [past contract was huge and of course, I'm really happy, but when I'll be the proudest is to step on the field in 2018 with the doctor degree at the same time."
Catch the full interview at the top of this article.
