This would be a new one.
Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is in his seventh and final year of medical school and has one last exam to take in May to determine if he can graduate.
Should he pass that exam, he has one request for the NFL:
“I want to put Duvernay-Tardif M.D. on my jersey,” the lineman told the Kansas City Star. “I’ve already started a conversation with the league office, and they say that anything is possible.”
That would be pretty incredible. Especially given the horror stories of pro athletes going broke, it doesn’t hurt to reward a player who is working to pursue their professional dreams beyond the gridiron.
Duvernay-Tardif, unsurprisingly, would be the first player to have a title like that on his jersey. He’s hit the books pretty hard while balancing an intense NFL career, and his background in medicine, in turn, has given him the chance to relate to teammates in unique ways.
“I think it’s nice that with my background in medical school and my background as an athlete, I can communicate or connect better with some of the athletes,” Duvernay-Tardif said.
Duvernay-Tardif indicated that if he fails the exam, he literally has to start medical school over. So between that and the opportunity to become an NFL trendsetter, it sounds like the lineman has plenty of incentive to hit the books pretty hard in the next couple months.
