KC Wolf
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- Mar 19, 2019
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When Chiefs guard/doctor Laurent Duvernay-Tardif first asked how he could help fight the outbreak of coronavirus, he was told the best thing he could do was spread the message of social distancing.
As things have progressed, he’s now able to do more than interviews, and to put his medical degree to use.
Duvernay-Tardif wrote about his experiences for Sports Illustrated, and said he was given a new assignment last week which allows him to do more to help, working in a long-term care facility in his native Canada.
“My first day back in the hospital was April 24,” he said. “I felt nervous the night before, but a good nervous, like before a game, and I packed everything neatly: scrubs, white coat, extra pens, even a second pair of shoes that I could leave in my locker, knowing they were clean. I wasn’t aware the Chiefs had drafted a running back that night in the first round, even though I will block for my future teammate, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, from LSU.”
That reminded him of his own draft experience, when he missed a draft party at his own house because he was working in an intensive care unit, helping with an emergency C-section.
He said his current role is “more of a nursing role,” as he relieves workers already taxed by the pandemic, and that there has been one positive test for COVID-19 at the facility he’s working at.
It’s a far cry from winning a Super Bowl a few months (or what feels like a lifetime) ago.
“It’s wild to think that just 10 weeks earlier I played in the biggest game in sports,” he said. “I was reminded of that even at the facility, when one of the people training me turned and said, “You’re the football player, right?” When I answered yes, he said, “Bro, you just won the Super Bowl.” Indeed, I told him, and now I just want to help.”
That makes him a different kind of hero, one more deserving of the parade he was part of in Kansas City, the kind of gathering which doesn’t seem real now.