Fighting COVID-19 as a doctor gave Chiefs' Laurent Duvernay-Tardif new appreciation for football
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Laurent Duvernay-Tardif can’t recall a time in his life where he smiled on the practice field as much as during this Kansas City Chiefs training camp.
There’s little to enjoy about NFL training camps. The rigorous conditioning exercises, repetitive drills and practice plays, all executed at summer’s hottest point. It’s a taxing workload for any player, let alone a 6-foot-5, 321-pound offensive lineman.
But after opting out of the 2020 football season so he could work as doctor in the fight against the coronavirus in his native Canada, Duvernay-Tardif views even the most undesirable aspects of football in a different light.
“After everything we’ve been through in the last year, it sets your priorities and makes you realize how privileged we are to play ball,” the right guard told USA TODAY Sports after Thursday’s practice at Missouri Western University. “After everything I witnessed on the front lines, to be here, playing football with a great group of guys, it’s really awesome.”
Even from afar, football offered a bit of a reprieve for the six-year veteran. While tending to COVID-19 patients in a Montreal long-term care facility, Duvernay-Tardif knew he had his priorities in order. However, the work was draining, and he often felt like he could never do enough.
“We lost a lot of patients, first of all,” he explained, “and then you work with patients who haven’t seen their family for 16 weeks because no one can come in. And then you’ve got to go in and treat them with a mask, visor, gown and so on, and you’ve got to find a way to have that human interaction. ... Taking that time to make sure they’re comfortable and preserve their dignity, that was the most challenging thing to do, and what took an emotional toll on the whole experience.”
Duvernay-Tardif said watching his Chiefs teammates play, and keeping in contact with members of the team helped him deal with the stress.
He admits that at times, he felt out of place and missed the game.
“There were times when you come in on Monday morning and you see on every patient’s TV is the recap of the Chiefs game, and you’re like, ‘(Expletive), I could’ve been down there.’ But then at the same time, I knew that my role was to be working on the front lines in 2020,” Duvernay-Tardif said.
“So, seeing my team win, talking to my teammates even though I was north of the border in Canada, that was a big relief and kept me grounded because I was looking forward to something else.”
Duvernay-Tardif worked hard to remain in football shape. With fitness centers closed, he built a gym on his balcony so he could maintain strength, and he regularly did two rounds of the Chiefs’ offseason conditioning program. But the rigors of training camp have reminded him that there’s no shape like football shape.
“My strength was pretty good still. But I’ve got to run and get my athletic ability back on track,” he said with a laugh.
Duvernay-Tardif has taken his lumps during some of the 1-on-1 drills while knocking off the rust. And although he was a starter in Super Bowl 54, he has worked primarily as second-team right guard behind rookie sixth-round pick Trey Smith. But Duvernay-Tardif is making progress.
“It depends on the day,” he laughed. “Sometimes you have a good day, sometimes you have a bad day. But it's just trying to rack up two good days in a row, and then three good days in a row. So far, it’s going well. I’ve still got some stuff to clean up. It’s my third padded practice in a year and a half, but it’s going well.”
Coach Andy Reid, who praised the sacrifice Duvernay-Tardif made last season, agreed. “I think he’s doing good. He’s come in and done a very nice job stepping back in. He brings that good experience with him. It’s just a matter of playing and timing and rhythm and all that, but he came in in great shape, which helps him.”
If he can regain top form, he can help meet a need for the Chiefs, who after battling injury along the line for much of last year – especially in the Super Bowl – aim to better protect Patrick Mahomes and feature a more punishing run game in 2021. Duvernay-Tardif watched helplessly last season but wants to be a part of the solution this year.
“When you see your quarterback running, it’s not a pleasant thing even though you’re not playing, and I knew the struggles the offensive line had, and it’s not an easy thing to pull off against a pretty good defense,” he said.
“But I think we’ll learn from that and come back stronger. But I’m excited. Throughout the offseason, there was a lot of key additions on the offensive line, and we’ll go battle and show the world that we’re a pretty good unit.”
Follow USA TODAY Sports' Mike Jones on Twitter @ByMikeJones.
