UPDATE (October 20, 9:14 p.m. ET) The NFLPA released a statement Tuesday night calling for a “full investigation into what occurred” with Jalen Hurts. The Athletic reports that the NFL’s chief medical officer is defending the Eagles’ medical team.
After nearly two weeks of vague and contradictory statements about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’ health and a last-minute reversal on his injury status, the team announced Monday that its Super Bowl-winning captain has been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and blood clots in his lungs.
Hurts is now out indefinitely — at least for the rest of this football season. As dangerous as blood clots in the lungs are, his are considered treatable with blood thinners. But Hurts can’t participate in any football activities while receiving such medication, so it’s unclear when he might take the field again.
For a franchise that has won two championships in the past decade and has a front office with a reputation for doing things “the right way,” the lack of transparency surrounding Hurts has been jarring. While the team has long been cagey about what it says about players’ injuries, in this case, its lack of clarity has created a problem of public trust.
While the team has long been cagey about what it says about players’ injuries, in this case, its lack of clarity has created a problem of public trust.
Head coach Nick Sirianni took questions from the media on Monday and said a whole lot of nothing, except that he has “full trust and full faith” in the team’s “medical experts.” We don’t know who that group of “medical experts” includes. The medical staff typically answers to the front office, but Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has been noticeably silent.
Hurts played a game in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 11 after it was determined he had a superficial blood clot in his left calf. Depending on the specifics, an athlete playing a contact sport with a blood clot can be deadly, but even though the sequence of events — and some apparent rumors — have provoked questions, there’s no evidence that the Eagles’ medical team did anything wrong. Certainly, teams must respect their players’ privacy. But the failure to clarify the decision-making process around Hurts’ health has left the public with more questions than answers. Everybody, including the players themselves and fans, should be able to count on teams doing right by their athletes, and the Eagles have yet to give the public that confidence.
Here’s the timeline as far as we know it: Hurts was cleated in the calf on Oct. 4 in the Eagles’ Week 4 loss to the Rams. Four days later, after being a full participant in practice, he sought treatment for that lingering calf pain. He then flew to London with the team ahead of its Week 5 matchup against Jacksonville.
The report that he was diagnosed with a superficial blood clot in his left calf on Oct. 10 is per a joint statement from the team and Hurts’ agent, Nicole Lynn. According to initial reports from both NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Netflix’s Tom Pelissero, Hurts was advised by doctors not to sleep that night and remained at a London hospital until early morning on game day. Those initial reports that he had been awake 36 hours at kickoff have since been contradicted by his agent, who says he slept at Wembley Stadium before taking the field and throwing for 220 yards and a touchdown. He never appeared on the injury report with a game designation, which indicates whether an athlete is probable, questionable, doubtful or out.
Despite having already been diagnosed with a blood clot, Hurts took the transatlantic flight home and fully participated in practice for the Eagles’ upcoming home game against the Carolina Panthers. On Oct. 14, a follow-up ultrasound revealed that the clot had moved, and the next day, the Eagles ruled him out for the Panthers game. On Saturday morning before that game, ESPN reported that the team had “not even discussed the possibility of injured reserve” for Hurts, but the Eagles placed him on IR just a few hours later. Then came Monday’s announcement that Hurts had blood clots in his lungs.
A blood clot traveling to the lungs is a potentially fatal condition, and how a team handles the medical evaluation and clearance process can reflect and inform the actions of teams at every level of the sport.
That’s a bizarre timeline, and what we don’t know is striking. Who were the doctors who treated him in London and cleared him to play? Were they employed by the team? Were they independent specialists, or were they doctors from both camps? Who signed off on a transatlantic flight for a player with a blood clot, then only known to be in his calf? And why didn’t the team’s injury report reflect the diagnosis of his clot?
This is obviously bigger than football. A blood clot traveling to the lungs is a potentially fatal condition, and how a team handles the medical evaluation and clearance process can reflect and inform the actions of teams at every level of the sport, down to high school and youth leagues, where grind culture starts. Some commentators actually framed Hurts’ playing against Jacksonville as a sign of his “commitment to football” instead of questioning what information he had and what medical advice he received when the decision was made.
There’s also business at stake here, though I can’t emphasize enough how irrelevant that is relative to Hurts’ health. The NFL partners with sportsbooks that rely on accurate team injury reports as market information. The league should care most about its players’ health, but one might also expect it to care about the implications of the Eagles’ secrecy on people betting on games. Even so, The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones reports that “the NFL will not issue any punishment to the Eagles for its handling of the medical process, or for Hurts not being given an injury designation ahead of the game.”
In other words, the league has already looked into this and decided behind closed doors that everything’s just fine. We don’t know who the league spoke to, what information it reviewed or how it concluded that a player diagnosed with a blood clot could play without any designation and be allowed on a plane. We also have yet to hear from the NFL Players Association. If there were ever a moment for the union to be demanding answers, this would be it.
There’s precedent for a threat to a player’s health provoking change. In 2022, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was seen stumbling after taking a hit and was still allowed to play. He suffered an even more frightening concussion four days later. Within two weeks, the NFLPA had dismissed the independent consultant who cleared him, and the league and union jointly changed the concussion protocol so that no one displaying Tagovailoa’s symptoms would be let onto the field. Notably, the review didn’t find that anyone had broken the rules, only that the outcome “was not what was intended” by the policy. And that’s the point: Nobody was found to be doing anything intentionally wrong, but the process ostensibly got better.
The next player in Hurts’ position deserves to know the system is working for him and not around him.
A similar investigation in warranted here. The next player in Hurts’ position deserves to know the system is working for him and not around him.
For more than a decade, I’ve argued that team doctors serve the team, not the player, and that every serious injury decision should involve physicians with no stake in the outcome of that week’s game. It may be, that in Hurts’ case, disinterested doctors made a reasonable call with the information they had. But we have no way of knowing. A player’s life may have been at risk, and the only answer anyone has offered is, essentially, “trust us.” That’s not good enough from the team, from the league or from the players’ union.
The Eagles have built a reputation on doing things “the right way.” When it comes to their quarterback’s health, the right way isn’t just about making the right calls. They also need to show their work.
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