Red Zone: From the Offensive Line to the Front Line of the Pandemic

In July 2020, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif sent shockwaves through the sports world by becoming the first NFL player to opt out of the upcoming season during the global pandemic  

As plans for the 2020 NFL season ramped up and daily cases of Covid-19 continued to skyrocket, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a fixture on the offensive line of the Kansas City Chiefs, stepped away from the game he loved. Not only an active player but also a medical school graduate, Laurent withdrew when he realized that continuing to play—and potentially spreading the virus—was antithetical to everything he believed in. For the first time in his remarkable career, Laurent couldn’t reconcile his twin passions of football and medicine, and with his team’s Super Bowl win only months behind him, found himself on the front lines of the pandemic, working in a long-term care facility in Quebec.  

But that was just the beginning of the story. As Laurent settled into his new reality, he quickly came up against a severe Covid outbreak in his hospital unit. Meanwhile, his team, the Kansas City Chiefs, entered the playoffs as the favorites to repeat as champions in a season that saw countless games postponed due to league-wide outbreaks, including one on his own offensive line. 

From the incredible highs of winning the Super Bowl to the burnout of working as an orderly, Red Zone takes readers inside Laurent’s life as he grapples with his roles of medical professional and NFL football player during a global pandemic. But this captivating memoir also reveals Laurent’s remarkable personal story, detailing how his insatiable curiosity and solid work ethic led him from his family’s bakery in Montreal to his role as one of the most fascinating and accomplished people in professional sports.

LAURENT DUVERNAY-TARDIF, a right guard for the New York Jets, is the only active NFL player with a medical degree. In 2018, a year after becoming the fourth?highest paid guard in NFL history, he graduated from McGill University. As a fixture on the offensive line, Duvernay-Tardif was an integral part of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl 2020 win. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, he stepped away from football to work as an orderly at a long-term care facility. For his remarkable accomplishments on and off the field, Duvernay-Tardif was named co-winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy for top Canadian male athlete and co-recipient of the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year award. He also received the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif’s scrubs and lab coat are on display in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.