The NFL made multiple officials available to reporters Tuesday during its fall league meeting to say that it was satisfied with how the Philadelphia Eagles handled quarterback Jalen Hurts’ care related to his blood clots and to criticize reports that drew incorrect conclusions about what happened.
And, ready for this?
Then the NFL Players Association released a statement on the matter on Tuesday evening saying something quite different.
That NFLPA statement criticized the league for drawing conclusions about how the situation was handled and added that the union was told by the league it would not review the care Hurts received.
NFL CLEARS PHILADELPHIA EAGLES OF WRONGDOING IN HANDLING OF JALEN HURTS BLOOD CLOT SITUATION
That last part calls into question how the NFL can defend how the Eagles handled the matter, because how could that assessment be made lacking a thorough review?
So, rather than allaying concerns and moving on from the Jalen Hurts blood clot matter, we actually have a new mystery and more questions.
“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 what characterize their work as very conservative, very patient-focused and appropriately guarded at every step,” said Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer.
Sills said that in a typical season, the league has been “in the low single digits” of players that suffered deep vein thrombosis like Hurts did over the course of the past decade and this:
“Every case gets reviewed and looked at,” he said.
Sills later added that in the Hurts 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.
“Quite frankly, you or I might have walked around with this condition without a diagnosis.”
Sills said that all the timing and decision-making on when tests were performed and conclusions reached came with “state-of-the-art imaging that was done in London and as far as the timing and the decision-making …
“I have great confidence in that and believe everyone acted with an abundance of caution and with a tremendous high degree of suspicion to try to identify and take care of these things as quickly as possible.”
Sills then repeated that the NFL has a committee that looks at all these cases and does so with the Players Association to see what can be learned.
There’s more: Jeff Miller, the NFL executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy, was asked if there was an investigation into what the Eagles did or whether the league simply trusted what the Eagles said happened.
“Both 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,” Miller said.
Taken in total, this represents a full-throated defense of the Philadelphia Eagles, their medical staff, and the doctors in London that treated Hurts.
And that sounded convincing until the NFLPA released its statement.
“The NFLPA is not aware of any NFL investigation into the medical care provided to Jalen Hurts,” the statement provided to OutKick and Fox News Digital reads. “In fact, the league previously informed the union that it did not plan to review the care he received.”
Wait, what?
That contradicts what an NFL vice president and the league’s top doctor said. Because, how could the NFL be so confident about the care Hurts received and the decisions that were made without a review or investigation into the facts?
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But the NFLPA was not finished blowing up the league. The NFL has apparently come to a conclusion that Hurts received great, professional care and called reporting suggesting something else “considerable and uninformed speculation.”
But the second part of the NFLPA’s statement suggests the NFL is engaging in speculation.
“Before conclusions are drawn about how this situation was handled, there must be a full investigation into what occurred,” the union’s statement read. “Determining the facts is essential to ensuring players receive the highest level of care and protection going forward.”