The public is demanding answers for how the Philadelphia Eagles handled Jalen Hurts before doctors discovered blood clots in his lungs. However, Adam Schefter doesn’t expect the league to reprimand them.
Hurts played in a Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars before getting diagnosed with superficial blood clots. The Eagles ruled him out for the season Monday, changing the quarterback’s diagnosis to deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli after the blood clot traveled from his leg to his lungs.
On Tuesday, Schefter discussed the Hurts situation on Philadelphia’s 97.5 The Fanatic radio station. Hosts Jon Marks and Andrew Salciunas asked the ESPN insider whether the league would punish the Eagles.
“What’s the penalty?” Schefter asked. “What is the league penalizing them for?”
Schefter agreed that the NFLPA is “absolutely” interested in how the Eagles handled Hurts, but he questioned what specific rules the team violated.
“Again, I come back, what did they mishandle?” Schefter asked again. “What did they do?”
NFL won’t punish Eagles
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images.
Marks responded that the Eagles let Hurts play with a blood clot and accused them of trying to cover up the diagnosis when they returned from London. He claimed they “lied” on last Wednesday’s injury report by listing him with a calf issue.
However, Schefter wondered if the Eagles broke any rules by not specifying a blood clot, especially if they weren’t yet aware of that diagnosis. The team claimed a follow-up ultrasound revealed the blood clots Wednesday evening.
“I’m not saying they did or didn’t,” Schefter replied to the accusation of the Eagles lying. “They did list him as a calf. Do you list him in that particular case? Because teams are fudging injury reports all the time … Have we seen teams list players on the report with a blood clot? And are they violating the rules by saying it’s a calf? I don’t know. They put him on the report with a calf; we didn’t know that it was a clot in the calf.”
According to The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones, the NFL won’t punish the Eagles. The league determined the process of clearing Hurts to play in Week 5 was “handled appropriately,” and they didn’t violate the injury report policy.
“If they did something wrong, the league will come down on them,” Schefter said before the league’s ruling. “But I don’t know that I see a violation there. I know what we all think. That it was the clot, not the calf. And so, you’re being a little tricky, but they are abiding by the injury report.”
