Unsurprisingly, the NFL will not take any action against the Eagles for their handling of Jalen Hurts’ blood clot until Hurts plays in Week 5.
While the league has yet to release a statement to that effect (or make anyone available for reporters to question on the matter), an anonymous source told Jonathan Jones: Athletics that the NFL has concluded the situation »was handled appropriately» by the team.
This is not a surprise because the The eagles saidand the the league confirmedthat the team “remained in communication” with the NFL throughout the process. It’s the best way to avoid league scrutiny; the Eagles involved the league in the various decisions made.
Jones also reports that Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, worked with the Premier League’s chief medical officer to have Hurts evaluated at the Cleveland Clinic in London on the evening of Saturday, October 10. The anonymous source told Jones that the team, staff, doctors and Hurts had determined he could play the next day against the Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Jones also reiterates this claim, which surfaced after multiple reports claimed Hurts was advised not to sleepthat Hurts “returned to the team hotel around 2:45 a.m. local time on Sunday and slept until around 10 a.m.”, and that he “took a nap” at the stadium before the game.
The anonymous source also repeats (as the NFL told PFT last week) that the team didn’t violate injury reporting rules, such as failing to downgrade Hurts to “questionable” at the time his availability was, you know, in question or failing to disclose that his “calf” injury was actually a blood clot.
Again, the league’s position is no surprise. The NFL and the Eagles were and are in sync on this issue, which, based on the evidence disclosed to date, challenges a persistent cultural reality that player health care appears to be more about checking the boxes required to allow a player to “be available” to play and less to treat the player like any patient who presents with a problem that requires diagnosis, treatment and recommended steps to ensure a complete and successful return to health, all other considerations taking second place.
Much more should be demanded of the league and its teams on issues like this. So far, however, the NFL Players Association has remained conspicuously silent. Many details remain unavailable. Reports from established “insiders” have painted a picture that is at times confusing, at others downright bizarre.
From whether the league and its teams are actually providing meaningful health care to player-patients to whether the league and its teams are creating even more inside information that could be misused for betting purposes (while millions of people constantly bombarded with gambling ads don’t know the truth about a player’s health), the Hurts case raises very real questions that will, over time, lead to participation in more regular-season games. and the inevitable emergence of the next story that will attract media attention, disappear and never be adequately responded to.
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