While the NFL has publicly insisted that league officials do not believe the Eagles mishandled Jalen Hurts’ blood-clot incident, league insiders are nonetheless “furious” with how the team handled its transparency on the matter, a report says.
Fans will recall that Hurts was allowed to play after being diagnosed with a superficial vein thrombosis in his left calf. But after he played, the team revealed he had a season-ending deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli. It is a condition that could have led to his death if the blood clots had broken free during the game.
After the more serious diagnosis, many wondered why the Eagles let Hurts play that last game at all. But the NFL determined that the team followed Hurts’s doctors’ advice and that the initial diagnosis was not life-threatening. The NFL decided not to punish anyone for the incident.
But now the National Football Players Association (NFLPA) is calling for more to investigate the situation, and the NFL has agreed to join the review, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
One inside source told the Inquirer that league officials are “furious” at the team, if not for allowing Hurts to play, but for how it handled the reporting on Hurts’ condition.
At last week’s owners’ meeting in New York, Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, tried to address the situation but said the league still endorses the team’s decisions about Hurts’ participation.
“The notion that there are external factors or that any of our physicians would put a player in harm’s way — that’s nonsense,” Sills said. “I think there was incredible vigilance, there was conservative care, state-of-the-art imaging that was done in London. And, as far as the timing and the decision-making, I have great confidence in that and believe that everyone acted with an abundance of caution.”
He added that the league has no issues with the timeline of Hurts’ treatment and says the team seems to have followed the advice of doctors.
The problem appears to be the stonewalling in which the Eagles coaching staff and management have perpetrated to avoid discussing the incident in public.
The fall out over how the Eagles have handled this incident does not seem put to bed just yet.
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