When one is sick, they stay home. When one is injured, they go to the hospital. When one has a blood clot and over 24 hours of no sleep, they suit up to play football.
Jalen Hurts’ season, and possibly his career, is over because the National Football League and the Philadelphia Eagles Organization didn’t care. They let him suit up to play even if it could have killed him.
ESPN reported on Tuesday that Hurts would be done for the season after doctors discovered bilateral pulmonary emboli, blood clots in both lungs. When the first blood clot was found while the team was in London, he was told to stay awake as a precaution by doctors. He had been awake for nearly 36 hours when he took the field on Oct. 11. In what world does a team have a hospitalized, sleep-deprived player cleared by medical staff to suit up for a game?
The NFL and the Eagles Organization’s practices need to be investigated. Both could have stepped in at any time and benched Jalen Hurts. They decided that they would rather lead him to the slaughterhouse than sit him. The Eagles only had a MRI preformed after they flew to London, nearly two days after Hurts sought treatment for his calf. They decided that the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis was just a scratch, so, he could go out on the field to get thrown around and tackled, and everything would be fine.
The NFL isn’t off the hook either. The Eagles put Hurts on the injury list going into the game on Sunday but they didn’t think to keep an eye out as this player is going overseas to play. They played with a human’s life and livelihood.
The talking heads are also to blame. All they do is bring up takes about players that are out of line. The most recent egregious take about Jalen Hurts’ injury came from former player turned analyst Micheal Robinson.
“If I’m Jalen Hurts, or anybody in Jalen Hurts’ camp, I’m saying, ‘Well if everybody’s hurt, I’m hurt too,’” Robinson said on “NFL Gameday Kickoff” Thursday. While he apologized Monday evening, what kind of mindset does it take to make a statement dismissing blood clots when we all have seen the damage they cause? Across professional sports we have seen long recoveries, players returning changed and, worse, careers ended. Chris Bosh is a prime example of a career cut short by blood clots.
Some might ask why couldn’t Jalen sit himself out. To that, I say: Because the NFL media would have a field day. Talking heads could say, “Josh Allen doesn’t sit out” or “I miss when real men played the sport.” Hurts is constantly berated and has his entire game put under a microscope. The NFL fuels this sense of not belonging. Hurts has been to two Super Bowls in his starting career. When he wins, it’s because of a “super team”; when he loses, it is because of him.
Philadelphia is a passionate city when it comes to sports. These are the same fans that threw snowballs at Santa, but don’t be mistaken; Philly fans do not play when it comes to quarterbacks and injuries. I remember Carson Wentz, who was never really the same after his ACL tear. Now, I hope that even if Jalen Hurts never takes the field in midnight green again, he will always hold a special place in Philly. As for the front office, I want a clean house of the medical staff. Also, Head Coach Nick Sirianni should be in hot water because either he knew Hurts had been awake 36 hours and didn’t care or he didn’t check on his QB1. I hope the NFL takes a long hard look and changes everything that went wrong in this situation. For a league constantly under fire for player health, this becomes another example of a preventable injury — Another name on the list of injuries because the NFL and Eagles’ Front Office were focused on product, not players.
When I say, “GO BIRDS,” it is not for the front office. It is for players like Hurts, who win humbly, lose graciously, know how to say the right things and play their heart out.