nbcsports
In the wake of the Jalen Hurts blood clot controversy, reporters covering the Philadelphia Eagles have raised legitimate questions. With only head coach Nick Sirianni made available to the media on Monday, he naturally became the target of those inquiries. However, Sirianni's responses during the press conference fell short of the transparency and detail that journalists were seeking.
Yet one remark from Sirianni, made almost in passing, brought to light a more profound issue that continues to plague NFL organizations. This problem persists years after Congress compelled the league to address head trauma seriously by bringing in independent physicians to determine when a player should be cleared to return after a concussion.
Far too many teams and their employed doctors perceive their role not as treating players as patients, but as a mechanism for fulfilling the necessary protocols to enable a player to take the field.
When asked to identify the individuals involved in the medical discussions following the discovery of a blood clot in Hurts' leg, Sirianni stated: "I think I'll put it this way, the same doctors and trainers that helped 21 of our 22 starters be available in the Super Bowl are the same guys today that deeply care about our guys to help them."
The emphasis on "be available" is telling. Doctors should not be tasked with helping players become available; their primary duty is to provide medical care to players who, when facing a health issue, become patients.
Without an independent doctor involved in the process, the focus can easily shift from delivering optimal patient care to maximizing the player's ability to participate. This is precisely why the Hurts case should serve as a catalyst for a thorough review of the entire system of medical care for NFL players.
When both the player and the team want the player to be available, a doctor who is seen as frequently recommending that a player should not play risks being replaced by one who understands the implicit (and usually unspoken) goal of ensuring as many players as possible are available for every game.
As the Eagles continue to navigate the fallout from an incident marked by a growing list of puzzling decisions, the only way to make sense of it is to view the entire episode as an effort not to provide Jalen Hurts with the best possible medical care, but to allow the player and the team to achieve their shared objective of ensuring his availability to play.
In Hurts' case, the immediate reaction to the blood clot discovery appeared to be about doing whatever was necessary to allow him to play—even if it meant advising him not to sleep as a precaution. That inexplicable detail has led to further confusion, with Tom Pelissero of Netflix adjusting his report from Hurts being told not to sleep and not doing so, to Hurts actually sleeping, at least a little, at the stadium before the game.
All publicly available evidence creates the impression that the Hurts blood clot was treated not as a medical emergency for the patient, but as an availability emergency for the player and the team. The question should never be, "What do we need to do to make sure he'll be available?" It should be, "What do we need to do to take care of this player?" with his availability being a secondary concern at most.
Consider the still-unanswered question of why Hurts was permitted to fly across the Atlantic Ocean despite having a diagnosed blood clot in his leg, less than three days after flying across the Atlantic with an undiagnosed blood clot. The concern seemed to be not ensuring that Jalen Hurts would face no enhanced risk of further issues, but keeping the door open for him to play on Sunday against the Panthers and beyond.
This is a critical issue that should not be glossed over simply because Hurts avoided the worst possible outcome of a pulmonary embolism. The league and its teams should view this matter as a wake-up call regarding the lingering culture of using doctors not as resources for patient care but as tools for player availability.
Originally reported by nbcsports.