NEW YORK — The NFL will not punish or investigate the Philadelphia Eagles for the treatment of quarterback Jalen Hurts' blood clots, the league said in a statement Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Hurts was diagnosed with multiple blood clots in his lungs after being allowed to play in the team’s Oct. 11 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars
in London, England, while dealing with what was, at that point, a superficial blood clot.Hurts was treated at the Cleveland Clinic in London and the league has also been in contact with that institution, the statement said. "The league’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills arranges for medical resources with leading providers in every international market with approval from the NFL Players Association," the league said. "Medical
care for players is provided by club medical staff in coordination with independent doctors."
League executives detailed their side of the story later Tuesday at the NFL owners' fall meeting.
"We don't have protocol about this," Sills said. "There's certain things we have protocols on, like concussion and heat and emergency preparedness. I'll just sum it up by saying that I have complete confidence in the Eagles' medical staff and their handling of this situation and I would characterize their work as very conservative, very patient-focused and appropriately guarded at every step."
Social media went rampant with criticism after The Ringer reported Hurts did not sleep for 36 hours before the game. But according to the league's timeline of sleep events, Hurts returned to the team hotel and slept around 7-8 hours after undergoing his initial ultrasound in London.
“There was considerable and uninformed speculation (Monday) in the reporting,” NFL executive vice president for communications, player safety and public affairs Jeff Miller said.
Miller noted the “conservative steps” taken by doctors – "none of whom deserve the unfounded criticism that was leveled in the press (Monday)," Miller said – while stressing that Hurts’ health was always the top priority.
USA TODAY Sports reached out to the NFLPA for comment.
Jalen Hurts' blood clot diagnosis progressed
Hurts was initially diagnosed with a superficial blood clot, which was announced Thursday, Oct. 15, along with news that he would miss the upcoming game against the Carolina Panthers. But on Monday, the team and a representative for Hurts released a joint statement describing how the superficial blood clot progressed into deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) and multiple clots in his lungs.
Hurts is being treated with blood thinners. His season is likely over, although his recovery timeline is not exactly known. His prognosis is good and his team and agent, Nicole Lynn, said in the statement that he is expected to make a full recovery.
Doctors who are blood clot experts and have spoken with USA TODAY Sports said that Hurts can indeed make that full recovery as long as he does not need blood thinners (known as anticoagulation medication) for his long-term health.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni shielded the Eagles' decision-making progress from reporters Monday, Oct. 19, and said he had complete faith in the organization's medical staff. Owner Jeffrey Lurie attended the fall owners' meeting in New York on Tuesday but did not address the media.
Teams secure the best of the best doctors in each NFL market, along with consultants, Sills said.
“It’s not our job to go in to tell them how to practice medicine,” he said. “It’s our job to support them.”
A team physician is a misnomer, Sills said – the first obligation is to the patient because that is the oath every doctor pledges.
“Any idea or any suggestion that a team physician is ever being influenced by a coach, a general manager, a team owner – it just doesn’t happen,” Sills said.
Modern medicine calls for what Sills called “shared decision-making.” Doctors provide patients with data, facts and opinion, but treatment is up to the patient.
“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.
Sills said the league works hard to secure the best doctors in locations where international games are played. He and his team visit a site on multiple occasions, starting about a year before the game, to prepare because the NFL wants the same standard of care for their players as if they were in a U.S. city.
“That’s our commitment,” Sills said. “That’s why we go there, spend all that time and develop those relationships.
“They’re getting access to the best of the best care in that market, which we feel is equivalent to that, that we could have in the U.S. That absolutely in the case that we have here.”
Sills said the league has been tracking blood clots in players for about the last 10 years. Every season, a handful of cases that involve clotting disorders in players pop up, Sills said, "so this isn't really a new situation."
"But it's something we examine, we track, we look at the patterns and look for any learnings that we can again then share," he said. "It's not a novel situation, and it's something that we and the Players Association and their medical advisers evaluate every year."
Like other doctors USA TODAY has spoken with, Sills would not definitively say whether flying from Philadelphia to London and back played a role in Hurts' clot progressing from superficial in his lower leg to pulmonary emboli.
"I think there was incredible vigilance, there was conservative care, state of the art imaging that was done in London," Sills said. "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 and with a tremendous – what we call a high degree of suspicion – to try to identify and take care of these things as quickly as possible. And most importantly – and this is the most important thing – acted at every moment with the patient's best interests at heart, regardless of their identity."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Top NFL doctor pans 'nonsense' criticism of Jalen Hurts' blood clot care
