Jalen Hurts is 28, in his prime, and suddenly his season, and perhaps more, hangs in the balance. The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, who played in London with a blood clot in his calf, has now been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and blood clots in his lungs, and is likely out for the rest of the season.
On Tuesday night, his union went to war for him. The NFL Players Association demanded a “full investigation” into how the Eagles handled Hurts’ medical care, after reports that the NFL had decided the team’s process was “handled appropriately” and would not punish the club.
The player at the center
Strip away the statements and this is a story about a man who trusted his team’s doctors. An ultrasound on October 10 found a superficial clot in his calf. He was cleared to play the next day in London, threw for 220 yards in a loss, and flew home. Only after the team returned to Philadelphia did further testing reveal how serious it was.
The what-ifs are agonising. Blood clots that travel to the lungs are life-threatening, not just season-threatening, and the question of whether he should ever have taken the field in London will follow this franchise. It is a different kind of torment from the on-field kind, but it is torment all the same.
The union draws a line
The NFLPA’s statement was unsparing: “The NFLPA is not aware of any NFL investigation into the medical care provided to Jalen Hurts. In fact, the league previously informed the union that it did not plan to review the care he received. Before conclusions are drawn about how this situation was handled, there must be a full investigation into what occurred.”
NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills called the suggestion that physicians would endanger a player “nonsense.” But the union’s job is not to take the league’s word for it; it is to protect the player. PhillyVoice’s reporting captures the mood in Philadelphia: the questions about the Eagles’ handling of Hurts are not going away, and neither is the union.
