Laurent Duvernay-Tardif deserves the Walter Payton Man of the Year award

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif should win the Walter Payton Man of the Year award.

Kansas City Chiefs offensive guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif announced Friday night on Twitter that he will opt out of the 2020 NFL season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Calling it “one of the most difficult decisions” he has made in his life, Duvernay-Tardif wrote in a statement on Twitter that being in the frontline during the offseason gave him a different perspective on the pandemic. He said he cannot allow himself to possibly transmit the virus while playing football and that, if he were to take risks, he’d rather do it caring for patients.

Duvernay-Tardif’s backstory has been well-documented by the media. For a refresher, he attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. After being drafted by the Chiefs in 2014 in the sixth round, he pursued his NFL dream while also attending medical school. He graduated from McGill University Faculty of Medicine in May of 2018 with a Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery.

Less than three months after winning a Super Bowl, Duvernay-Tardif put his medical expertise to work by helping battle the coronavirus outbreak at a long-term care facility in Quebec. In a Sports Illustrated exclusive, Duvernay-Tardif said a reporter asked him about the coronavirus three days before the Super Bowl. When the NBA and NHL put their seasons on hold, he remembered the reporter’s question. He said he followed the virus’ spread in late February while on vacation before the virus arrived in North America.

It is an understatement to say 2020 has been a crazy year for us all. With COVID-19 and the fight against racism, many NFL players have been involved in the community, including Chiefs players. They all deserve to be recognized.

Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, and Tyrann Mathieu donated 63,000 meals altogether to Harvesters. Hill donated and distributed about 200 Chick-Fil-A sandwiches to nurses, doctors and other essential staff at Saint Luke’s North Hospital in Kansas City. Mathieu teamed up with Bleacher Report and surprised people in his hometown impacted by COVID-19 to help pay for their rent. Mathieu also helped pay funeral expenses for the death of a nine-year-old while Frank Clark did the same thing for the family of a four-year-old.

Mahomes and Mathieu were also part of the NFL’s Black Lives Matter video earlier this offseason, teaming up with other black NFL players in the video. Shortly after the video, Mahomes and Mathieu launched voter registration programs while Mahomes teamed up with NBA star LeBron James to help people register to vote.

The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champions on and off the field. 2020 has been surreal. The Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years, which many Chiefs fans never thought they’d see. With more pressing matters following the Super Bowl win, the coronavirus has put the world on hold and has taken more than 640,000 lives worldwide. Meanwhile, the discussion about police brutality, social injustice and racism reached a fever pitch after George Floyd’s death.

Chiefs players have been heavily involved in the community, using their platforms to do what they can to help in an unprecedented year. Personally, I hate to rank contributions of people who do work in the community, but the NFL has to hand out the Walter Payton Man of the Year award at the end of the season. There is only one recipient for that award every year.

I don’t care if he plays zero snaps in 2020. When the NFL selects its recipient for the Walter Payton Man of the Year and hands the trophy to the winner at the Super Bowl, the trophy needs to have the name “Laurent Duvernay-Tardif” engraved. The Chiefs are expected to repeat as Super Bowl champions and Duvernay-Tardif is giving that up to help COVID-19 patients.