I’ve been a Philadelphia Eagles fan long enough to endure season shitshows, catastrophic coaching collapses, and enough fourth-quarter heartbreak to qualify for disability benefits. But the recent unfolding of Jalen Hurts’ medical fiasco has me considering something unprecedented.
I’m actually too angry to complain about football and didn’t even wear Eagles gear last Sunday while rage eating my cheesesteak.
Our 28-year-old franchise quarterback, our MVP who delivered Philadelphia a Super Bowl championship, has been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and blood clots in both lungs. His season is over. Thankfully, doctors expect a full recovery.
But after reviewing the timeline published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, the fandom has questions. Lots of questions. Preferably answered by someone other than Nick Sirianni, who showed up at the news conference this week looking like a freshly-struck opossum on the Schuylkill Expressway.
Hurts took a cleat to the calf during the October 4 loss to the Rams. Four days later, he sought treatment. He practiced again Friday, reported additional discomfort, and boarded a transatlantic flight to London. An ultrasound wasn’t performed until Saturday, after the Eagles arrived overseas. It revealed a superficial blood clot.
Now I don’t have a medical degree. But I do possess a relatively functioning brain and healthy distrust of anyone whose explanation begins with “out of an abundance of caution.” Exactly how abundant was that caution, pals, when your injured quarterback was flying across the Atlantic without an ultrasound?
The Eagles consulted medical specialists (perhaps Dr. Pepper or Dr. Doogie Howser), who cleared Hurts to play against Jacksonville, reasoning that activity and mobility were beneficial. Apparently, getting pummeled by enormous professional athletes (many of whom already tend to have a common goal of using Hurts in particular as a crash test dummy) now qualifies as physical therapy.
Then came reports that Hurts had been awake for approximately 36 hours because doctors feared prolonged immobility. His agent subsequently clarified he did sleep before kickoff, although he spent much of the preceding night undergoing hospital evaluations.
As The Inquirer’s medical experts explained, Temple Health pulmonary embolism specialist Dr. Parth Rali questioned the sleep restriction: “I struggle to find any connection with avoiding sleep in the setting of a blood clot.” As so many might struggle, Doc.
But here’s the really infuriating part.
After all that, Hurts played every offensive snap against Jacksonville, engineered a late scoring drive, and put the Eagles ahead with eight seconds remaining.
Eight. Seconds.
Then shit-for-brains Sirianni inexplicably allowed a returnable kickoff instead of sending the ball into the end zone. Jacksonville returned it 53 yards and kicked the winning field goal.
As The Inquirer reported, former Eagle Emmanuel Acho called it an “absolutely idiotic decision.”
Sirianni himself admitted, “I lost us that game.”
We love accountability but congratulations, Nick. You flew your medically compromised quarterback halfway around the world, he still dragged your offense into the lead, and then you managed to lose him the damn game anyway.
But alas, things got worse.
A subsequent ultrasound revealed movement in the clot. Hurts was ruled out, placed on injured reserve, and finally, on Monday, the Eagles announced the terrifying diagnosis: deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli. Blood clots in both lungs.
The Inquirer reported that when reporters pressed Sirianni about allowing Hurts to play and fly home, he responded, “I’m not a medical expert.”
Well, neither am I, but we’re not running an NFL franchise.
And the public relations rollercoaster has required an unending roll of season tickets.
First, a superficial clot. Then a moving clot. Then injured reserve. Then potentially life-threatening pulmonary emboli. At this rate, Eagles fans need a medical dictionary and a private investigator to follow the injury report. Fandom pages exploded with calls for accountability: Sirianni shouldn’t have been sent to a news conference with nothing to say, it should’ve been GM Howie Roseman. Hurts should sue the Eagles into kingdom come for compromising him and then losing the game on a shitty call; the only acceptable outcome is to rename the Linc after him (ok, that one was me).
To be fair, the NFL’s chief medical officer defended the team’s medical handling, and the league reportedly found no protocol violations. Jason Kelce also warned against prematurely assigning blame.
Fair enough. Nobody has established that playing football or flying caused Hurts’ condition to worsen.
But the NFL Players Association is demanding a full investigation, particularly because the league’s initial review wasn’t one.
The Inquirer reported that the NFL cleared the Eagles’ process while the players’ union insisted serious questions remained.
I’m with the union. Honestly: the NFL “reviewing itself” in five minutes feels a little “fox sports guarding the henhouse.”
This is a league that scrutinizes whether a receiver’s toe touched the sideline with forensic precision. It should be able to investigate how its Super Bowl MVP ended up playing an entire game with a diagnosed blood clot.
And what about Hurts’ future? Blood thinners mean no contact football for now. Doctors are optimistic, but recovery takes time, and nobody should rush him back to rescue a shit season with an injured roster that looks like a CVS receipt.
Philadelphia fans are notoriously demanding. We boo, scream, second-guess, and often contemplate throwing the television through a window; all with great passion and affection. It’s a toxic relationship: we love our players fiercely.
Jalen Hurts has earned that love. He deserves transparency, competent care, and the opportunity to enjoy a long, healthy life beyond football. (Shit, At this point I’d give anything for him to replace Sirianni).
The Eagles can lose every remaining game this season for all I care. We’ve survived worse.
What I can’t comprehend is the notion that winning a meaningless October game took priority over protecting the man who gave us a championship.
Fly, Eagles, Fly. But for fuck’s sake, next time put our quarterback’s health ahead of the flight.