A little more than four years after being drafted into the NFL, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif achieved another major milestone on Tuesday.
The starting right guard for the Kansas City Chiefs graduated from medical school at McGill University in Montreal, earning his Doctor of Medicine and taking another step in a career that he described to ESPN as "a really strong Plan B" to football.
Duvernay-Tardif celebrated his graduation by posting a picture of himself on Twitter, wearing a white coat with his jersey number, No. 76, emblazoned in Chiefs colors on the back.
"This is it!" he wrote. "Today I become a doctor!"
Duvernay-Tardif, 27, was a sixth-round pick in the 2014 NFL draft. He's continued to pursue his M.D. part-time over the past four years while simultaneously developing into a starter for the Chiefs, and he said earlier this year that he wants to add "M.D." to the back of his jersey.
With a medical degree in hand, Duvernay-Tardif told ESPN that his next step in medicine will be to participate in a residency program. He plans to work under a supervisory physician in emergency medicine. He told the network that he is unsure whether he'll be able to do the residency part-time during his NFL career, which will remain his priority, but he's enjoyed the balance between the two.
"I'm proud to be in the NFL, and it's been an incredible journey to get here," Duvernay-Tardif told ESPN, "but being able to combine medical school at the same time, this is the accomplishment I'm proudest about, to be able to combine both. So many times I heard people tell me I'd have to make a choice."