Former Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is once again pausing his NFL career to devote himself to the medical field.

He is beginning a residency program at a Montreal-area hospital starting next month. Duvernay-Tardif is currently an unrestricted free agent.

"I'm going to prioritize medicine ... and we'll see in September if there's a fit," Duvernay-Tardif, 31, said. "After eight years in the NFL, and I don't want to sound pretentious by saying this, but I think I've earned the right to do what's best for me and not just for football and kind of bet on myself a little bit."