WHAT THE FUCK??

Don’t care what you think about his coaching. Howie and Jeff are pathetic for that. After all he’s done. What an embarrassment for the organization. Howie and/or other operational staff members should have been there. Wtf does Nick know about why Jalen got on that flight. Nick might be a lot of things, but he loves his players. Super lame.

Didn't think I'd need to update things this soon after my previous post about his blood clot, but here we are.

All the previous disclaimers apply about me not being his physician or having access to records etc.

First things first, his season is done. Period. The ABSOLUTE minimum duration for anticoagulant (blood thinner, which I'll abbreviate as AC going forward) for a deep vein thrombosis (blood clot in the large veins of the arms or legs, or DVT) and pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs, or PE) is 3 months. This differs from the superficial clots which can be treated for as little as 45 days. More likely though is 6 months of treatment. 3 months would obviously put him at January 15th roughly and 6 months would be mid-April.

To answer some questions:

Is this life threatening? Unlikely in this specific case. He was diagnosed promptly and he's a young and extremely healthy person. Blood clots in the lungs are absolutely life-threatening in general and I've had patients that have died from them. But like all diseases they exist on a spectrum and I suspect his are on the more mild side given there's no reports that he's been hospitalized.

Is this likely to be career-ending? Probably not. Multiple players have had clots like this and returned, including most recently Taylor Moton of the Panthers. Jalen will undergo testing to see if he is particularly predisposed to blood clots. If these tests came back positive, that would be of greater concern. In a typical patient who developed this type of clot and was then found to have elevated risk of blood clots, we would discuss and potentially put on AC for life. You obviously cannot play football on this medicine. Jalen could opt to forego that with very close monitoring for future clots but it'd be a persistent risk. There's also a procedure that he could have done to decrease the risk of clots getting to his lungs, but this wouldn't do anything to prevent clots in his legs and carries its own risks. There's also a risk of some chronic lung issues, though with prompt treatment that is less of a concern. He will need to get extensive testing in the spring to ensure all the clots have resolved before they will ultimately stop the medicine and after that would be cleared to return. He can continue non-contact training and conditioning during this time.

Did the flight cause this? It's not possible to say for sure. It surely didn't help matters, but my understanding is that the initial diagnosis wasn't even made til they were already in London. They could've considered putting him up in a hotel in the UK and letting him heal there, but he'd have had to agree to do so. Additionally, as I said in my last post, flying isn't an egregious choice if you're aware this is going on and take steps like getting up and out of your seat frequently to ensure blood flow.

How did it go from a minor issue to a major one? That's a good question. The risk in general of progression from superficial thrombophlebitis to DVT/PE is quite low, and even lower in young healthy people. The flight is a possibility, but I really wonder if the initial diagnosis was incorrect. Depending on when and how the ultrasound was performed, I think there's a decent chance that a small DVT was missed and it progressed from there. Extremely fresh clots can sometimes be a little harder to see on the ultrasound, especially if they're small and in one of the smaller veins. There's several things we do to check whether a vein has a clot or not on the ultrasound. But I think there's a chance it was misdiagnosed initially. And if he did in fact have an undiagnosed DVT then the flight certainly could've exacerbated it, as could playing the game in London.

Why didn't they let him sleep? 🤷 That isn't advice I ever have or ever would give a patient in this situation. Yes, your legs are not moving much while asleep but our bodies are built for that. You do more during certain phases of sleep, plus you're (usually) horizontal which improves venous blood return from the legs. There can be debates about compression sleeves and similar devices, elevation vs no elevation, etc but this was bizarre (if that is indeed what team doctors recommended).

Why is this season cursed? Regression to the mean of being a Philly sports fan.

Jalen Hurts isn’t a perfect QB. But we as fans are extremely lucky to have someone who is willing to put literally everything on the line for this team. What an insane and unlucky situation. A lot of teams would kill for a player as tough as Jalen Hurts.

Get well soon J.

If you have the means to do so, consider donating to The Jalen Hurts Foundation. The purpose of it is to support the youth in our community, and it could also be our (the fans) way to rally behind Jalen. After donating, you will have the option to create a card. We filled out one for Jalen; hopefully he sees it one day. As a parent, I am so grateful to him for being such an outstanding role model to not only my kids, but children across the country. Get well, QB 💚🦅💚

https://jalenhurtsfoundation.org

The whole situation is such a mess... but this makes a little more sense if true

First off, thoughts are with Jalen and his recovery, makes things like wins and losses seem so insignificant when dealing with a condition like this.

There seems to be a lot of Redditors calling for an entire culling of the medical staff/Nick for the handling of this situation. Now if it comes out that the medical team committed malpractice and endangered Jalen, then yes that is a fireable offense as the health and safety of the players is always the top priority.

We know so far that Jalen was diagnosed with a superficial blood clot Saturday when the team got to London. What we don’t know is if they should have caught it before they got to London or if they missed anything during that initial scan.

What we know is that superficial blood clots aren’t considered as serious as DVT, and the medical team cleared him to play. None of us know whether or not Jalen playing in that game put him more at risk to have the condition continue to deteriorate.

We then know that they flew back to Philly, and over the course of the week they discovered that the clots moved and progressed to the more serious condition of DVT. Again, we don’t know what circumstances caused the clots to move.

I’m not trying to defend the organization and say they can do no wrong, malpractice happens all the time in real life/sports and that may have very well happened. But to jump to conclusions and demand people being fired, when the vast majority of this sub has no medical training to comment on that, is not fair to Jalen who may very well have no ill will towards the organization based on how these events have transpired.

I also don’t see how this should result in Nick being fired. Again, there are plenty of other reasons to critique Nick and question whether or not he is the right coach for the organization, but it is not his place to question the medical staff if they informed him that Jalen was cleared to play. I can’t help but think people are letting their preset feelings about Nick influence their opinion on his role in this. If he was a play calling head coach and “offensive genius” like Shanahan or Ben Johnson, I can’t help but think the calls for him to be fired over this would be much less.

Again, I am not saying that there is no blame for the Eagles medical staff here, just that we don’t have the facts or medical knowledge to deem that. I understand the emotions behind this given how serious it is, but we should let additional information come out before we declare the conclusion that everyone needs to lose their jobs over this.

That's all. Fuck this POS questioning Hurts who basically risked his life to play last week. It's even more pathetic considering he's a former NFL player.

Then again, what do you expect from a Penn St grad?

The eagles are currently 0-4 against animal teams and 2-0 against non-animal teams. In our 11 remaining games we face only 3 animal teams and 8 non-animal teams. Final record 10-7. Prove me wrong.

Hey Eagles fans im here to offer a olive branch from a cowboys fan for peace to say the hurts situation is genuinely scary. Even though he’s an eagle this is beyond football and I genuinely wish him the best. He’s a hell of a competitor and I never want to see a player risk their life for football. I wish him the best in his recovery and hope to see him back on the field again.

Top tier pun!
Assuming Jalen Hurts makes a full recovery, it’s optimistic to believe this is a great chance for a reset year.

My 8yo daughter almost broke into tears when I told her that J Hurts was done for the year, far and away her favorite player. "He'll be back next year for the eagles, right dad? Cuz he's the best." I hope so, kid. It's much more than a game, rest up QB1.

Coaching is a massive issue on this team. Not pictured is the fact that the Eagles lead the league in 3 and outs for a second straight season. This team, this offense… they just aren’t fun to watch. They suck the fun out of football for me. Watching redzone the last two years is so eye opening, it’s like I’m watching other teams play a different sport.

That's a tough fella

I don't think I've ever seen an offense film review this despondent in over 6 years

Summary from the article:

Those of you who have read my work for a while will know that I rarely call for a player to be benched or a coach to be fired. I would much rather explain what is going wrong and look for ways to fix it. But after watching the Eagles’ offense against the Panthers, I think Sean Mannion (you can add more if you want) should probably go. This under-center, outside zone offense he brought in has been dreadful, and I don’t see a coach who looks ready to solve the problems his own system is creating. With so little coaching experience, he looks completely out of his depth.