As NFL defends Jalen Hurts’ medical care as ‘incredibly conservative and incredibly vigilant,’ union demands investigation

NEW YORK — NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills didn’t mince words Tuesday when he insisted: “There is no doctor who is taking orders from a football person, a non-medical person, period.”

Sills and NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller strongly defended the Philadelphia Eagles’ care of quarterback Jalen Hurts’ blood clots against criticism that football interests could have superseded medical care.

Hurts was diagnosed Oct. 10 with a superficial blood clot on his calf and then played against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Oct. 11. In the days that followed last week, doctors found the blood clot had moved not only into the deep veins of his calf but also into both of his lungs.

The Eagles placed him on injured reserve as he undergoes treatment with blood thinners.

Questions swirled regarding the safety of Hurts playing and traveling on a seven-plus hour transatlantic flight with the clots. Miller denounced what he called “the unfounded criticism that was leveled against” team doctors in response to Hurts’ progressed condition.

 “I don’t think you can take that outcome and say there was something flawed about the process,” Sills said. “Sometimes in medicine, we do all the right things and diseases progress and other things develop. So again, I think I would look the opposite side of that and say, 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 non-athlete.

“I mean, quite frankly, you or I probably would have walked around a lot longer without a diagnosis.”

When asked whether the league would investigate the Eagles’ handling of Hurts’ medical care, Miller indicated comfort with the knowledge obtained.

“Talking to the Eagles staff and making sure from people on the ground, tracking the case, talking to the independent hospital and doctors involved that we have, I think, a complete understanding of the course of events,” he said.

The NFL Players Association issued a statement Tuesday evening demanding more transparency.

“The NFLPA is not aware of any NFL investigations into the medical care provided to Jalen Hurts,” the union said in a statement. “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. Determining the facts is essential to ensuring players receive the highest level of care and protection going forward.”

‘You're always thinking about the implications of flights’

Playing football overseas introduces new medical challenges to the highly physical sport.

Sills outlined some of the infrastructure in place for treating players abroad.

The league office’s medical team takes three to four trips to every market one to two years before a game is played there, Sills said. They identify partner hospitals and local physicians including physicians experienced in treating professional athletes. Emergency trainings are conducted in these cities.

After games, too, team physicians coordinate recovery and injury treatment including an assessment of whether players with injury or illness can fly home.

“It’s not just sort of, ‘Let’s jump on the plane and we'll sort this out when we get back home,’” Sills said. “You're always thinking about the implications of flights … [and] the medical implications of travel.”

After an 8 p.m. team meeting on Oct. 10, Hurts went to the Cleveland Clinic in London for evaluation and imaging, a person with knowledge of the treatment told Yahoo Sports. He returned to the hotel at 2:45 a.m., at which point he slept in his room until 10 a.m. and then went to the stadium, where he would again nap rather than participate in pregame warmups, the person said.

Hurts completed 21-of-40 (52.5%) passes for 220 yards and a touchdown while taking one sack and rushing twice for 2 yards. The Jaguars beat the Eagles, 19-17, after returning a kickoff in the final seconds to set up kicker Cam Little for a field goal.

Cleveland Clinic professionals diagnosed Hurts with the superficial blood clot, meaning the clot was near his skin and above the fascia, or tissue layer. The doctors recommended follow-up imaging 72 hours later. Subsequent imaging indicated the clot had spread. 

Two independent medical experts described it as “rare” and “unusual” that a superficial clot would travel into the deep vein and then the lungs. Because the superficial clot is usually contained, it does not warrant elimination from contact sports, Dr. Ben Levine and Dr. Thomas Maldonado told Yahoo Sports in phone interviews. Treating the progression of the clots with blood thinners, however, does require avoiding contact sports. The standard timeline for the blood-thinning treatment is three to six months, the doctors said.

The Eagles said Hurts is expected to make a full recovery and return to contact sports after discontinuing blood thinners.

“We anticipate that he will have no long-term effects,” the team said in a joint statement with Hurts’ agent, Nicole Lynn.

Sills spoke broadly about the league medical landscape more than he spoke directly to Hurts’ condition, citing patient privacy. But he emphasized that he believed the Eagles and consulting doctors acted with a “high degree of suspicion to try to identify and take care of these things as quickly as possible,” adding that the physicians kept Hurts’ health interest top of mind.

“Our first obligation as team physicians is always and evermore will be to the patient to do the right thing,” Sills said. “Why? Because that's what we're licensed to do. That's our standard of care. That's the standard we're held to, that's the standard we're licensed to, that's the oath that we've pledged and that's what happens. 

“And so 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.”