Delaware senator calls on NFL to explain handling of Jalen Hurts health issue

Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) is demanding answers from the NFL on how the Philadelphia Eagles handled quarterback Jalen Hurts’s blood clotting issue , which led to the end of his season last week.

In a letter to the NFL this week, Rochester said Hurts’s issue “is deeply personal to me,” explaining “my late husband and the love of my life, Charles Rochester, tore his Achilles tendon playing a game of pickup basketball before a business meeting. Blood clots traveled to his heart and lungs and, at the age of 52, he died.”

“As I understand it, Jalen Hurts was cleated in the calf during the Eagles’ Week 4 loss to the Rams. After flying to London for a game against the Jaguars, an ultrasound found a superficial blood clot in his calf. Conflicting reports suggest Mr. Hurts was hospitalized and advised to stay awake until kickoff as a safety precaution. He played, but a follow-up ultrasound days later found the clot had moved. Further testing ultimately revealed the clot had spread to both of his lungs,” the lawmaker wrote.

The Democrat, an Eagles fan, said she was “deeply relieved that Mr. Hurts’s story did not end the way my husband’s did,” estimating clots affect more than 900,000 people in the United States each year. She wrote, “The NFL’s influence and reach offer a vital opportunity to turn this tragedy into a force for preventing lost lives both in sports and outside of it.”

The Eagles announced Hurts would be shut down for the season as a result of the clotting issue, which was discovered before he was allowed to play against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London and travel back to the United States with his team.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni deflected questions about how Hurts’s injury was handled, telling reporters earlier this week, “I lean on our guys in all those situations. I’m a football coach. I lean on our medical experts in every situation. I have full trust and full faith in them. It’s not just me that has major care for our players. It’s them as well.”

The NFL Players Association has called for an independent investigation into the Hurts saga, which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he welcomes after a league official told The Athletic it was aware of no wrongdoing by the Eagles as it treated Hurts.