Update for Eagles' handling of Jalen Hurts blood clot situation shared amid NFL, NFLPA joint investigation

On Sunday morning, it was revealed that the NFL and the NFL Players Association will be "working together to review the matter" regarding Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts being permitted to travel to London with a blood clot in his leg to play against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 11. 

Hurts' initial blood clot issue has been linked with him being cleated in the Eagles' 24-20 Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 4. For a piece published on Monday, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated shared a timeline for the Eagles' handling of Hurts from when the club traveled to London on the Friday following the Rams game. 

How Jalen Hurts was permitted to play against the Jaguars in Week 5

"The team took off from Philadelphia at 11 p.m. ET Friday night, with the idea that the players could get their night’s sleep on the plane," Breer explained. "They got to the team hotel in London at around 10:30 a.m. local time Saturday with instructions not to nap, but to try to stay up until a normal hour to go to bed, to reset their clocks — the same advice most of us have gotten when going to Europe. A team meeting wrapped the players’ activities for the day at 8:30 p.m. London time. That was when Hurts talked to trainers, and the decision was made to take him to the NFL’s partner hospital in the U.K., the London location of the Cleveland Clinic. Without a police escort, and through normal traffic, he got there at around 10:30 p.m. He had the ultrasound done, the superficial clot was found and he didn’t get back to the hotel until 2:45 a.m. He then had until 10 a.m. to sleep, ahead of the 2:30 p.m. kickoff."

Following the Eagles' 19-17 loss to the Jaguars, Hurts was allowed to fly back with the team. However, he hasn't played since, and it was learned last week that he will miss at least the remainder of the 2026 season after doctors discovered multiple blood clots in his lungs. 

A previous report said that the NFL would not punish the Eagles for how they handled Hurts' medical situation, but the NFLPA later called for "a full investigation into what occurred." Back on Oct. 21, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell insisted that he would "welcome" such an investigation.

What NFL, NFLPA want to learn via investigation into Jalen Hurts matter

"After the (Jacksonville) game," Breer added about Hurts, "he was cleared to fly without another ultrasound, because they thought it was, again, just a superficial clot. That decision, to me, can now be questioned, but you can also see why in the moment it seemed like it’d be okay. What’s unknown is when the clot broke up and got into Hurts' lungs, and whether the radiologist missed something on the initial ultrasound. And that’s why it’s important to have an investigation. It’s not just about getting people in trouble, which I think is how the league initially took it. It’s also about learning what you can from a novel circumstance that could come up again." 

During the "Fox NFL Sunday" program, insider Jay Glazer of Fox Sports said that the league and the NFLPA want "to ask" the following about the Hurts matter: "Did we all handle this the right way, and could we do better in the future for players who go through the same thing?" 

It remains to be seen when the investigation will be completed and what will be learned by the time it wraps up.