Chiefs offensive guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, who opted out of the 2020 NFL season to use his doctorate in medicine to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic in a long-term care facility just outside Montreal, graciously found time for a Super Bowl 2021 Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.

Duvernay-Tardif has teamed with Microban 24 to launch the “Most Valuable Protector” program to honor frontline workers providing 24-Hour protection. This week the honor goes to Garrett Wittmaier, a member of the sanitation staff who worked at Arrowhead Stadium this past season. Additional MVPs will be honored in other cities around the country following Super Bowl LV.

Q: Why did you decide to do what you’ve been doing during the pandemic?

A: After playing in the Super Bowl (LIV), I went back and helped in a long-term care facility for like 10 weeks, and I really think it’s there that I witnessed firsthand the impact on all the healthcare professionals, patients, and that’s kinda what motivated my decision because I feel like I’m gonna be in the medical community for the next 40 years and I have to err on the side of caution. We didn’t know what the year was going to be like, if the protocols in the NFL were gonna effective, so I really had to make sure I was not outing myself at risk, but also potentially putting communities at risk. And that was not to say I was against playing football, it was just a personal decision.

Q: Where does your compassion for people come from?

A: I don’t know … that’s a good question. I love connecting with people, I love talking to people. I feel, like, a big feeling of fulfillment when I help. Coming back from the long-term care facility … I feel like when I’m able to put a smile on my patient’s face, it just gives me a sense of purpose, but also, I feel like I’m contributing to something greater, I would say.

Q: What is the most difficult part of the job?

A: There’s so many things going on right now. Sometimes you go to work it’s a green zone, sometimes it’s a red zone, sometimes you gotta put the PPE that way, sometimes you gotta put the PPE the other way. And with all those challenges and distractions, you still gotta care for your patient and take the time. At the beginning, I think I was kinda scared of catching COVID, so I would just do my thing with a patient, whether it was putting an IV or doing a blood draw or handing out medication as quickly as possible so I can get out of the room. And then at some point, I started putting myself in the patient’s perspective, and realized that they don’t see anybody else than you because they cannot see any visitors, so building that human connection and that interaction with them is probably the most important thing to be honest, especially when you work with elderly people that they’re not gonna go back home, so making sure that they’re comfortable is probably the most important thing.

Q: What has been the most rewarding experience, or experiences, you have been a part of?

A: I think just taking the time to enjoy the little things. When a patient’s able to get a haircut, when you take the time to like FaceTime with a patient’s family and get them together even though it’s virtually … putting a smile on your patient’s face; they’re going through so much right now that I feel like when you’re able to do that … It feels great, it really does.

Q: What will your emotions be watching Super Bowl 2021?

A: I’ll be excited, that’s for sure. I’m lucky because I’m one of the few players who got drafted by a team and was able to stay there for six years without being traded or cut, and I feel very privileged. No matter what, I’m gonna be behind the Chiefs come Sunday, and I’m excited for them. And I know what that is, to go through a football season, the sacrifices, the focus you need, and to do that with a pandemic on top of everything, I feel like they really deserve a lot of credit.

Q: What are your favorite memories from playing and winning it last year?

A: I feel like playing in the Super Bowl last year, first of all, it was amazing to win, but also, it was the last time we were actually able to celebrate together, and not only at the Super Bowl, but the parade in Kansas City with a million people, coming back home, seeing your friends, your family … winning the Super Bowl was the ultimate team accomplishment, and to be able to share it with your fans, your family, your relatives, your friends, that was truly amazing.

Q: Why do players love Andy Reid?

A: ‘Cause he’s incredible. For me personally, he’s one of the only coach during the pre-draft visit in 2014 that saw my passion for medicine as a positive thing, and he was like, “If you’re here even though you have medical school, it’s probably because you really love football.” He said he was gonna support me, and that’s really what he did for the last seven years, and I think that’s why he’s such a great coach and we have such a great locker room in Kansas City is because he chooses players and understands what they need in order to perform on the field at a high level. 

Q: What is Patrick Mahomes like in the huddle?

A: I mean, he’s great, he’s awesome. He cracks jokes, he’s calm, great leader.

Q: What are your thoughts about Tom Brady playing so well at 43?

A: That’s for sure impressive. I don’t know what I’m gonna be looking like at 43, but I’m for sure not gonna be looking like Tom Brady running around like that.

Q: What was your boyhood dream?

A: Honestly I don’t know. I didn’t grow up wanting to be in the NFL, that’s for sure. I started football kind of late. I think I wanted to be like an entrepreneur at the beginning and then an engineer. And then I realized that that was way too much computer work, and I hate programming, so I switched to (chuckle) medicine. It was like an area where you gotta mix pure science with psychology and human connection, and that’s the challenge of medicine, is to apply a diagnosis to an individual who’s like unique and different from everybody else.

Q: Who were your biggest influences?

A: A hundred percent my parents. When I grew up, my parents took me on a sailboat trip for like a year with my two sisters, and we were just like dropping off on different islands, we didn’t speak the language. They were like, “Yeah, go to school today.” That freedom, that curiosity, that open-minded mentality — that comes from my parents, and I’m really grateful for that.

Q: What have you learned about yourself in the last year?

A: I think, like a lot of people, I learned that it’s possible to adapt and to transition from one mindset to another, and for sure we had to do that a lot in 2020.

Q: How did you feel about being named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year?

A: That was a great honor. At the beginning, I was kind of really surprised to be honest. When your name is put on the side of LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes, kinda felt like I didn’t really deserve it at the beginning. That’s important to mention, like I’m only working two-to-three days a week, and there are people that are doing the same job that I’m doing fulltime for the past 20 years, so I was like, “How can I accept this award when I know that people are working harder than me in the front line?” And that’s why I want to accept that in their names to be honest because they’re the ones putting the real work and nobody’s really talking about them.

Q: What drove you as a boy and what drives you now?

A: Passion, curiosity and trying to do things outside of the box, outside of the norm.

Q: When will you decide about returning to the Chiefs?

A: Right now the only thing I can control is to make sure that I stay in shape, so I work out and maintain my weight, and then when it comes down to going back to Kansas City, if COVID and vaccination and everything go well, and I’m able to cross the border and feel safe and feel like it’s not the same context as it was this year, I’ll go down there and compete for a job, and we’ll see.

Q: What would your message to the Chiefs be?

A: I’m proud of them. Like I said, I know what it is to play a 16-week season, the playoffs, and make it down to the Super Bowl, and it’s hard, and to do that with COVID and everything … it’s truly amazing. I’m proud of them.

Q: What would your message to fellow healthcare workers be?

A: They’re doing incredible work. In Canada right now, like orderly nurses, they’re the ones who like are holding the healthcare system together, and it’s truly heroic work. So I say thank you, that’s for sure.

Q: What would your message about the pandemic be to America and Canada?

A: After seeing everything that those healthcare workers did over the last year in terms of sacrifices, in terms like overtime, in terms like change of schedule, no vacation … putting a mask and washing your hands and following public health measures probably the least we can do. Because some people sacrifice a lot more than us. And we can go about our business right now because of those people who work at the front lines. So I think we should be willing to make those little individual sacrifices for the greater good of the community.