Published October 19, 2026 02:17 PM
When asked last Wednesday about the calf injury that popped up on the prior Friday’s injury report, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts called it a “very unique experience” before declining to delve into the details.
“Very unique” ended up being a massive understatement.
Tom Pelissero of Netflix reports that doctors told Hurts “not to sleep as a precaution, so he had been awake for roughly 36 hours when he started against the Jaguars” in Week 5.
That assertion alone becomes another alarming wrinkle in a story that has many concerning layers and levels. No NFL player should be playing without sleeping in 36 hours. No human should be working at any job without sleeping in 36 hours.
How was it deemed proper or responsible for any physician to say to Hurts, basically, “You have a blood clot. It could move. It would be bad if it moves, because it could end up in your lung. Which could be fatal. So here’s the plan: Don’t sleep.”
It’s ludicrous. It’s irresponsible. It seems to be borderline malpractice, if not worse. And it’s just another reason why the entire situation cries out for a full and complete investigation.
There’s no fault on Hurts; football players want to play. Most NFL players would stay up for 36 hours if that’s what it took to be able to play. But there needs to be an adult with a fully functioning brain in the room to realize that no football player should be playing football without a fully functioning brain. Being awake for 36 hours would tend to make the brain not fully function.
Eventually, podcasts will be recorded, documentaries will be filmed, and/or long articles will be written regarding how the various planets aligned in a way that resulted in Hurts: (1) developing a blood clot in his leg; (2) flying to London with a blood clot in his leg; (3) receiving clearance to play with a blood clot in his leg; (4) being told not to sleep for 36 hours as a precaution against the blood clot in his leg moving; and (5) flying back to Philadelphia with a blood clot in his leg after playing in a football game following 36 hours without sleep.
Through it all, the Eagles and the league maintained strict secrecy. And while the health of the player should always take precedence, the fact that his condition was completely concealed should be viewed as unacceptable in a sport that relies so heavily on public interest, engagement, and investment.
Beyond that, who’s looking out for the players in situations like this? When it comes to head trauma, the league utilizes unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants with the goal of protecting the player from not only the team’s urgency to have him available to play but also the player’s intense desire to play. A similar approach is needed for other conditions that could endanger a player’s overall health.
Jalen Hurts wanted to play. The team wanted him to play. The process was, by all appearances, designed not to treat Jalen Hurts as a medical patient but to secure the objective of allowing him to play.
Even if it meant advising him to stay awake for 36 hours before playing.
Certain things don’t need the full explanation to prove that whatever happened shouldn’t have occurred. In this case, the simple fact that Jalen Hurts played with a blood clot after not sleeping for 36 hours as a precaution against the blood clot moving is more than enough proof that Hurts should not have been playing last Sunday.