Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is retiring from professional football.
The Quebec native, 32, announced his retirement on social media Thursday morning, saying he feels “serene” with his decision and that he’s walking away feeling accomplished.
Duvernay-Tardif played six NFL seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2014 to 2019. He then played parts of 2021 and 2022 with the New York Jets.
“It’s been 9 years since I’ve had the opportunity to evolve in the NFL, and sometimes I still don’t get over the opportunity to experience this adventure,” he wrote in his lengthy statement.
The offensive lineman was selected by Kansas City in the sixth round of the NFL draft in 2014 after playing at McGill University from 2010 to 2013.
The Mont-Saint-Hilaire native received his medical degree from McGill in 2018.
He won Super Bowl 54 with the Chiefs in February 2020 and then opted out of the following season to volunteer at a Quebec long-term care facility during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave.
The NFL congratulated him in a statement Thursday morning, highlighting the move to pause his football career to help his community.
The six-foot-five, 321-pound Duvernay-Tardif was one of five athletes recognized as “Sportsperson of the Year: The Activist Athlete” by Sports Illustrated in 2020.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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