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Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif assisted an elderly resident who tested positive for COVID-19 transfer to the COVID floor of a long-term care facility in Canada this week as his teammates prepared for an AFC Division game with the Cleveland Browns.
This is what Duvernay-Tardif has been doing all season after being the first NFL player to retire from the 2020 calendar. He has been working on the front line of the pandemic since April and sees the end near.
Duvernay-Tardif calls for “ individual sacrifice ”
But it will take a commitment to strict government protocols.
“It’s going to take a few months before we have a critical number of people vaccinated to see a difference,” Duvernay-Tardif told the Toronto Star. “This is the last little individual sacrifice we have to make for the greater good of the community, and it’s absurd when I see (anti-mask) protests.
“We are at the finish line. We need to stay together more than ever.
Duvernay-Tardif, one of Yahoo Sports’ 12 transcendent athletes for 2020, was due to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, according to Star. Health officials say herd immunity will occur with 75 to 80% of the population vaccinated. There is still a long way to go to get there.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.
Frontline workers have ‘real heroes’
Duvernay-Tardif is the first active NFL player to graduate from medical school and returned home to Montreal to fight the pandemic. He had not yet made a residency and did not have a license to practice, so he started working as a care aide.
He called his colleagues who worked in the care facility part-time for years as the real heroes. Even after giving bad news, they came back with a smile to help, he told The Star.
“These people are so dedicated, it’s crazy,” he said, via the Star. “It’s easy to go and train, live and train when you get paid a ton of money to do it, and there are thousands of people out there saying, ‘Good job. You do it well. You are so good.’ But waking up every morning to go to the long-term care home and do the work that they do, with the passion and dedication that they have, is real heroic. No one is there to encourage them.
He told The Canadian Press he thinks he is given “too much credit” for deciding to work on the front lines and that his “definition of a hero has changed this year.”
Will Duvernay-Tardif return to the chefs, Patrick Mahomes?
The Super Bowl winner plans to return to the Chiefs next season, he confirmed to several media this week after saying so in a video released by NBC before “Sunday Night Football”.
OL Chiefs Laurent Duvernay-Tardif has chosen not to participate in the 2020 season to use his doctorate in the fight against Covid-19.
Thanks to @FedEx and others who carry vaccines to our communities, Laurent is looking forward to getting back into the field next season. pic.twitter.com/rDIpTotQL9
– #DivisionalRound on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 11, 2021
He trains in a gymnasium he built on the roof of his home in Montreal, according to the Star.
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