The NFL decided Tuesday not to discipline the Philadelphia Eagles over how they handled quarterback Jalen Hurts's blood clots, The Athletic and the AP reported. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in London found a superficial clot in his calf on Oct. 10, and he played the next day against Jacksonville. Four days later, the clot had moved. On Monday, the team said he had clots in both lungs. He's on blood thinners and will likely miss the rest of the season. The league concluded the situation was "handled appropriately," a source told The Athletic. The source said the Eagles also didn't break injury-report rules by not disclosing that his "calf" injury was a clot. Hours after the news broke, the players union said it didn't know of any NFL investigation and demanded one.

The Eagles Did Everything Right

The NFL and an outside doctor say the care was careful, and that clots can spread even when doctors do everything right.

The doctors were careful at every step. NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills told reporters at the league's fall meeting that he has "complete confidence" in the Eagles' medical staff. He called the care "very conservative, very patient-focused and appropriately guarded at every step." "Sometimes in medicine, we do all the right things and diseases progress and other things develop," he said. Dr. Caron Rockman, a vascular surgeon who didn't treat Hurts, said she's seen no evidence the Eagles acted improperly. She called it "a judgment call."

Coaches don't give team doctors orders. Sills rejected the idea that outside pressure pushed doctors to put a player in harm's way. He called it "nonsense." "There is no doctor who is taking orders from a football person, a non-medical person. Period," he said.

He didn't play on no sleep, either. NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller pushed back on reports that Hurts stayed awake for more than 30 hours before the game. He called them "uninformed speculation" and said Hurts slept at the hotel first.

But the Union Says Nobody Has Investigated

The players union says the league told it there would be no review, then cleared the Eagles anyway.

The union wants an investigation before anyone clears the Eagles. The NFL Players Association said Tuesday night that it's "not aware of any NFL investigation" into Hurts's care. "In fact, the league previously informed the union that it did not plan to review the care he received," the statement said. The union said there "must be a full investigation into what occurred" before anyone draws conclusions. It didn't accuse the doctors of doing anything wrong. OutKick senior NFL writer Armando Salguero responded to the two clashing accounts with "Wait, what?"

And the League Shouldn't Judge an Exam It Helped Arrange

ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio says the NFL helped set up Hurts's London exam, so it can't be the one to clear it.

The NFL helped set up the exam it just cleared. Sills worked with the Premier League's top doctor to get Hurts seen at the Cleveland Clinic in London. ProFootballTalk founder Mike Florio wrote that this means the league isn't a neutral judge. He also said teams don't need to give doctors orders. He argued that teams replace any doctor who gets a reputation for being "unnecessarily cautious."

The league's own concussion rules prove it. The NFL uses independent doctors to spot concussions. Florio said that program "directly refutes" Sills. If team doctors could always resist team pressure, he argued, the league wouldn't need doctors with no team ties. He wants the same setup for certain other health conditions. Sills declined to discuss Hurts's case, citing patient privacy. Florio called that "a copout," since Hurts has already approved public statements about his health.

Where This Lands

The NFL and Sills say the Eagles' doctors were careful and the team won't be punished. The players union says it knows of no investigation and wants one before anyone clears the Eagles. Florio says the league helped arrange Hurts's exam and shouldn't be the one to judge it. He wants independent doctors for more than concussions.

Sources