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Laurent Duvernay-Tardif has a US$42-million contract, graduated with a degree in medicine and is now a Super Bowl champion — the first Quebec-born player and only the ninth Canadian with that distinction.

And yet, the hulking 6-foot-5, 321-pound starting right guard for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs remains the same grounded, humble and unpretentious guy who played for McGill University when the football team couldn’t attract flies to its games at Molson Stadium.

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“I’m really good at keeping track of my friends … the same few I had from elementary school, CEGEP, McGill and medical school. They help me stay grounded,” he explained. “They don’t want to hear about the Super Bowl; they want to have fun. If I’m not the same guy I was five years ago, they’re going to let me know.

“I don’t want that to happen.”

For an hour Sunday afternoon Duvernay-Tardif, barely 24 hours after arriving back in Montreal — following the Chiefs’ 31-20 Super Bowl victory over San Francisco and last Wednesday’s championship parade in Kansas City — sat on a stage at the aquatic complex in Parc Jean-Drapeau answering questions, in French and English, with humour, candour, insight and thoughtfulness, looking everyone in the eye while speaking passionately.