Kansas City Chiefs’ Laurent Duvernay-Tardif opts out of contract to help fight COVID-19

The first player to opt-out of his NFL contract for the 2020 season has a great reason to do so. Kansas City Chiefs starting guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif will pass on this season to help out his native Canada as it fights COVID-19.

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My decision regarding the 2020 NFL season #nfl #covid_19 #chiefs #kansascity

A post shared by Laurent D. Tardif (@laurentduvernaytardif) on Jul 24, 2020 at 6:50pm PDT

Tardif told SI.com in April what it was like to be on the front line when fighting the pandemic.

Chiefs’ starting RG @LaurentDTardif is the first NFL player to opt out of his contract due to COVID-19. Duvernay-Tardif will not play this year and instead will continue to work as an orderly at a long-term care facility in Canada, helping fight COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/QBpKCHaFUV

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 25, 2020

Duvernay-Tardif is not only a Super Bowl champion. He is also a doctor and will be valuable as our neighbors to the North battle the virus.

Duvernay-Tardif is the fourth NFL player to have graduated from medical school. He graduated from McGill University Faculty of Medicine in May 2018 with a Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery (M.D., Ch.M.). He primarily studied during the off-season prior to mandatory off-season workouts.

He had the support of the Chiefs coaching staff, especially head coach Andy Reid, whose mother also graduated from McGill’s medical school.