NFL and Players' Union Agree to Review How Jalen Hurts' Blood Clots Were Handled

By The Arena Staff

Oct. 25, 2026 — The statement was one sentence long, and it landed on a Sunday morning with a full NFL slate about to start.

"The NFL and NFL Players Association are working together to review the matter," the league and the union said Sunday, according to AP and Bleacher Report. The matter is how the Philadelphia Eagles handled Jalen Hurts' blood clots, a diagnosis that has put their quarterback on injured reserve and is expected to keep him out for the rest of the season.

The joint review follows a week of back-and-forth. On Tuesday, the NFLPA said it was "not aware of any NFL investigation into the medical care provided to Jalen Hurts" and that the league had told the union it did not plan to review his care. "Before conclusions are drawn about how this situation was handled, there must be a full investigation into what occurred," the union said, per ABC News.

Commissioner Roger Goodell answered the next day at the end of the league's fall meeting in New York. "We welcome that," he said, while also defending what had already happened. "The protocols were followed. Our process is to make sure that's the case, and our chief medical officer has gone through that." That chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, had given what AP described as a passionate defense of the Eagles' medical staff.

The timeline is what has drawn the scrutiny. The Eagles have said Hurts took a cleat to the calf area on Oct. 4 against the Los Angeles Rams. He told the medical staff about it after practice on Oct. 8 and was back at practice the next day before the team flew to London, AP reported. Specialists there first diagnosed a superficial vein thrombosis in his left calf, and Hurts played against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 11.

Last Monday, the Eagles and Hurts' agent, Nicole Lynn, said the clot had traveled to his lungs and that he has deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli. He is on blood thinners and can't take part in football activities until he's off them. The same statement struck a hopeful note, per Bleacher Report: "Jalen's prognosis is very good, and we expect a full recovery."

How the review will actually work is still being sorted out. NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reported Sunday that communication is underway on the logistics. "It's taking some time, this is a big endeavor, obviously," he said, according to Bleacher Report.

The Eagles, meanwhile, have a game to play. They host the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night without Hurts, the Super Bowl LIX MVP.

Share-card photo: Jalen Hurts in 2022, by All-Pro Reels via Wikimedia Commons.jpg), CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.