MONTREAL -- Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs lineman and a medical doctor, is working at one of Quebec's troubled long-term care facilities for seniors.
Duvernay-Tardif, who graduated from the faculty of medicine at McGill University in Montreal in 2018, went public with his off-season volunteering in a first-person account published Monday in Sports Illustrated.
Duvernay-Tardif's agent, Sasha Ghavami, would only confirm that Duvernay-Tardif was indeed working at one of the residences, known as CHSLDs in Quebec, but would not confirm where, and said his client would not be providing any further comment,
Some Quebec media have reported that Duvernay-Tardif is working at a CHSLD in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu area, about 40 km southeast of Montreal. Duvernay-Tardif is a native of the region.
In the Sports Illustrated piece, Duvernay-Tardif says he "was assigned to a long-term care facility near my hometown on the South Shore, which is about an hour from Montreal."
Earlier this month, Quebec Premier Francois Legault and Health Minister Danielle McCann called on the province's doctors and medical specialists to help out at the province's CHSLDs, many of which have been COVID-19 hotspots and which have been the sites of the vast majority of deaths related to COVID-19 in the province.
Duvernay-Tardif told Sports Illustrated that he had already been keen to help out in his home province during the COVID-19 pandemic when he heard the call by the province's leaders.
"It’s now possible for me to go back and help," he said. "I had already wanted to, but when it’s real, it hits you, the gravity involved."
Duvernay-Tardif told Sports Illustrated that he cleared his plans with the Chiefs, who he said have "been amazing. They were proud of the fact that I wanted to go help. They said they would support me."
