The lack of complete information on the events that led to Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts traveling to London with a blood clot in his leg, playing with a blood clot in his leg, and promptly returning to Philadelphia with a blood clot in his leg has resulted in numerous reports seeking to fill in the gaps. The craziest report emerged on Monday, when Netflix’s Tom Pelissero and ESPNFL’s Ian Rapoport reported that doctors had advised Hurts not to sleep as a precaution.
This led Pelissero to claim that Hurts was gone without sleeping for about 36 hours.
A few hours later, Pelissero (who was criticized for its framing of Hurts’ desire to play without sleep) sent a mop and bucket on Twitter and said this: “I just spoke to Jalen Hurts’ agent, Nicole Lynn, who clarified that even though Hurts was up until early Sunday morning to be evaluated at a hospital, he was able to sleep while joining the team and the Eagles booked him a room at the stadium. Videos from the stadium show Hurts taking the field just before kickoff and he felt rested enough to play.
The ESPN article has been revised for include this paragraph: “Sources told Rapoport that Hurts was in hospital late at night in London and when he returned to the hotel at 3:00 a.m. local time, he was able to sleep until the team left for the stadium at 10:30 a.m. Upon arrival, Hurts took a nap until he went onto the field for pre-match warm-ups.”
So, over the course of the same day, the news stories went from doctors telling Hurts not to sleep at all to Hurts ending up sleeping for up to 7.5 hours at the hotel AND taking a nap at the stadium.
None of this makes sense, largely because the Eagles have yet to make anyone available to answer questions from the media and public. Although the team’s Monday statement mentions “transparency,” the level of transparency has been selective and incomplete. Only coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters, and his role was necessarily limited.
If Hurts has no qualms about releasing statements detailing his medical condition, he surely wouldn’t object to the doctor(s) who treated him talking about what happened, when it happened, how it happened, why it happened.
But it seems the Eagles and the NFL are hoping to run out of time until the next bright, shiny object captures the attention of our collective goldfish brains.
Eventually, someone will have the whole story. It would be better if it came directly from the people involved in a chain of decisions that seems strange at best, dangerous at worst.
Yet that’s how it is for the NFL and its teams. They want public attention on their terms. And they will do their best to hide uncomfortable truths from outside scrutiny for as long as they can.
As for the reporters who apparently retracted reports that Hurts had been advised not to sleep without officially retracting them, there is a story to tell about why and how that happened. The most sensible explanation is that they were cajoled by someone at the Eagles and realized (or were reminded) that the Eagles are one of the teams that butter their bread when it comes to reporting trades five minutes before moves are announced.
Gn sports
