NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills defended Philadelphia Eagles team doctors from criticism of how they handled Jalen Hurts.
“I have tremendous confidence in the Philadelphia Eagles’ medical staff and all our medical staffs,” Sills told reporters on Tuesday, per Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports.
Sills shot down any talk that team doctors act in the team’s best interest rather than the player’s.
“Our first obligation as team physician 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 pledged, and that’s what happens.
“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.”
Sills suggested that the “only real difference” in sports medicine is that athletes don’t have to sit in a waiting room and can get an MRI on demand. They’re otherwise treated to the same high standard of care, including privacy protection and communication to make shared decisions.
“The notion that there are external factors, or that any of our physicians would put a player in harm’s way? That’s nonsense,” Sills declared.
Eagles treated Hurts with “incredible vigilance”
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The Eagles said last week that a Wednesday ultrasound discovered a superficial blood clot in Hurts’ calf. The diagnosis came after he played a Week 5 game in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars and practiced on Wednesday.
On Monday, the team announced that Hurts will miss the rest of the season because multiple blood clots moved to his lungs. The 28-year-old can’t play football or any contact activities while on blood thinners.
The timeline has raised scrutiny, but Sills insisted that Eagles doctors treated Hurts with “incredible vigilance, conservative care, state-of-the-art imaging … an abundance of caution, and tremendously high degree of suspicion.” The NFL reportedly won’t penalize Hurts for how they handled the situation.
“I don’t think you can take that outcome and say there was something flawed about the process,” Sills claimed.
