Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers offered some thoughts about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts' situation after being ruled out for the rest of the season due to deep vein thrombosis and blood clots in his lungs.
While speaking with reporters after the Steelers flew over to Paris for their Week 7 game against the New Orleans Saints, Rodgers addressed Hurts and his health before taking a bit of a shot at Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's Chief Medical Officer.
“I don’t have a close relationship with Jalen (Hurts). Obviously, we’re in the quarterback fraternity, so you don’t want to see anything like that happen to anybody, especially a guy who’s still in football,“ Rodgers said, per PennLive's Nick Farabaugh. ”Obviously, I don’t know all the details about what’s going on. All I’ve seen is what’s been printed. Allen Sills, he’s the guy in charge of all things medical at the NFL office. And he and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye about things. So, I can’t say I’m real surprised."
Rodgers' History with Sills
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodgers drew headlines when he revealed that he did not receive a vaccination and instead turned to homeopathic treatment.
He appealed to the NFL that those treatments should qualify him as vaccinated (per ESPN), though the league did not accept it.
Rodgers was fined alongside Allan Lazard for a violation of the league and NFLPA's COVID-19 protocols in November 2021 for attending a team-sanctioned Halloween party that took place outside of the Green Bay Packers' facility since they were unvaccinated (per NFL.com's Grant Gordon).
He also stated on "The Pat McAfee Show" that "some of the rules to me are not based in science at all" regarding how the NFL approached COVID-19, which Sills pushed back on without directly naming Rodgers.
“We've been very consistent,” Sills said in a conference call in November 21, per USA Today's Jarrett Bell. “First of all, these are things that we decided collectively with the players association (NFLPA). They're always based on science. The science that at best we understand for public health, but also our own data. We are constantly looking at our own data in every way possible, to see where we might still be vulnerable and what parts of our protocols we think are particularly effective. So, we're very comfortable with what we've put in place being driven by our data and is working.”
NFLPA Investigation into Hurts' Situation
The NFLPA has called for an investigation into Hurts' situation, as he was cleared to play in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 5 after a superficial blood clot was found in his calf via an ultrasound.
Upon the team making its way back to Philadelphia ahead of Week 6, another ultrasound found that the blood clot had moved.
From there, he was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli, which means that a blood clot traveled from his legs to his lungs.
"The NFLPA is not aware of any NFL investigation into the medical care provided to Jalen Hurts," the NFLPA said, per ESPN's Tim McManus. "In fact, the league previously informed the union that it did not plan to review the care he received," the statement read. "Before conclusions are drawn about how this situation was handled, there must be a full investigation into what occurred. Determining the facts is essential to ensuring players receive the highest level of care and protection going forward."
Sills stated earlier this week that he was confident in how Philadelphia's medical staff handled the situation.
“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,” Sills said, per NFL.com. “I don’t think you can take that outcome and say there was something flawed about the process. Sometimes in medicine, we do all the right things and diseases progress and other things develop.
“In this case, everyone was incredibly conservative and incredibly vigilant and was very quick to make diagnoses of these conditions that might not have been diagnosed in a nonathlete.”
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