Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Might Not Get His Shirt Wish

At the end of May, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif became the only active NFL player to hold a degree in medicine.

The Kansas City Chiefs right guard graduated from McGill university in Montreal, making him Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, MD.

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. The Chiefs drafted him with full knowledge that the player was in his third year of medical school.

Upon his graduation, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif acknowledged the short lifespan of a pro football career.

“I think it’s important to build a career that you’re going to be able to do a long time,” he said. “Football is not really that.

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Tardif requested that the NFL allow him to print “MD” after his name on the back of his shirt. He was thinking about this before he even graduated.

“I want to put Duvernay-Tardif M.D. on my jersey,” he said in February. “I’ve already started a conversation with the league office and they say that anything is possible.”

However, the “No Fun League” may have put paid to that idea. The NFL declined his request, although Tardif hasn’t yet given up.

According to TVA Sports’ Andy Mailly-Pressoir, “he hopes that the recent media buzz surrounding his graduation can make a difference.”

A man of many talents, Tardif also worked as a journalist at the winter olympics this year. He is the fourth NFL player in history to earn a medical degree while still playing.

In the 1950’s, Bill McColl became the first doctor to play in the NFL. Jim Kovach was still playing when he earned his medical degree in 1984. Then in 1988, McColl’s son, Milt, became a doctor during his final NFL season.