Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts' recent diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli has placed a national spotlight on blood clots, stoking an interest in further education around the subject as well as ways to improve the handling of them in professional sports.
The discourse has even reached the political spectrum, with U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware penning a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seeking clarity on league blood clot protocol.
Hurts joined a list of athletes who have been diagnosed with blood clots, including Serena Williams, Victor Wembanyama, Chris Bosh and New England Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore.
The Eagles didn't have to look far for another example of an athlete who had been diagnosed with blood clots after learning Hurts would miss the rest of the 2026 NFL season: Carolina Panthers right tackle Taylor Moton made his return to the lineup last week against Philadelphia after being diagnosed in June with multiple blood clots in his right lung.
"It was really emotional," Moton said of his return.
"Prayers up to [Hurts]. I hope that everything is OK with him and praying for a speedy recovery for him."
Every individual case is unique, but learning about other players' experiences can be illuminating when trying to understand what happened with Hurts and what's next. That certainly seems to apply when it comes to the story of David Andrews, the two-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots who manned the center position for Tom Brady and others from 2015 to 2024.
Andrews shared his story with ESPN detailing the events around a blood clot diagnosis that forced him to sit out 2019.
Like Hurts, Andrews' story involves a long flight overseas and discomfort in his calf.
Andrews had traveled to Israel with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and a handful of his teammates in June 2019. He slept for most of the flight, went out that night, then worked out with fellow lineman Joe Thuney the following morning.
Andrews noticed his calf was sore after running but thought little of it. He was probably dehydrated or sprinted too hard, the thinking went.
"Football players are used to pain, right? It's just kind of standard operating procedure," he said.
The next sign that something was off came later in the summer right before training camp. His energy was lower than normal, his workouts felt more difficult, and he was struggling to breathe. But his wife had recently come down with a bad cold and congestion and he figured he had as well. Then came back pain when he was out to dinner a few nights later. He coughed up blood on the first day of training camp and notified the trainers. A subsequent X-ray appeared to reveal something in his lungs, and he was diagnosed with pneumonia, he said.
His stamina wasn't improving as the 2019 regular season approached. Andrews labored during their third preseason game against the Panthers and remembers being yelled at by his offensive line coaches. Finally, at his wife's urging after hearing him wheezing while they lay in bed, he went to see a pulmonologist who discovered "a bunch of blood clots in my lungs."
He was immediately transferred to the emergency room. His hematologist ran a battery of tests, checking for anything from cancers to HIV. A scan ultimately revealed a deep vein thrombosis in his leg that had been scarred over.
"So then she started asking questions like, 'When was the last long flight you went on?' And I told her about Israel. She's like, 'Well, did you notice anything in Israel?' And I was like, 'Well, you know, I had this calf pain but I thought I just kind of tweaked my calf.' She's like, 'Oh my goodness!'"
Andrews' young family -- he has two boys and a girl, ages 5, 2, and 6 months -- were bustling in the background as he spoke on the phone.
He was put on anticoagulants and missed the 2019 season. There was some talk about having him on the medication for three months and seeing where things stood then, but during his discussions with coach Bill Belichick, he concluded there was no way he'd be able to train strenuously enough during that time to be ready to play football late in the season if he was cleared.
He was placed on injured reserve and ended up taking blood thinners for six months.
The good news was that he wasn't also dealing with an injury and therefore didn't have to worry: What if I'm not the same player when I get back?
Then again, the benefit of rehabbing from a physical injury is there's a sense of control in that you work to achieve specific markers and can see the progress as you go along.
"This is literally just letting your body heal and sitting around, which I found very frustrating at times," he said.
After a series of tests at the six-month mark -- Andrews' doctors wanted to make sure his heart wasn't strained from having the clots for as long as he did, he said -- as well as an ultrasound. Andrews announced he was cleared to return in April 2020.
Andrews played the 2020 season and four more years after that with no issues. Sixty-four of his 121 career starts came after being treated for blood clots in his lungs.
However, there was some management involved as he played those last five seasons. He underwent a test to see how long the anticoagulant stayed in his system (about 24 hours) so he could take preventative measures when traveling long distances. Before West Coast or international flights, he said he would take a blood thinner after practice on Friday and then again after the game.
"The only time it technically affected me is when we played in Germany in '23, because on that trip, like most teams we leave on Thursday night after practice, so I took a blood thinner and I just couldn't practice Friday morning," Andrews said.
The thought of having a recurring blood clot would creep into his mind every once in a while, like if he happened to tweak his calf, but there's also a certain surrendering necessary when playing such a physical sport and "you can't live your life in that kind of fear."
Andrews said he went back on blood thinners after his retirement in 2025 as a precaution. High-impact activities are not recommended when on anticoagulants but outside of giving up rigorous weight training ("One day I was looking at myself in the mirror like, 'Why are you squatting over 405 pounds?'" he said), he is living his life as normal.
Andrews said he is also supposed to wear a bracelet indicating he is on blood thinners so emergency workers would be alerted in the event of an accident. He hinted he might not always be a model patient and does run into a problem every now and again ("I cut myself with my pocket knife the other day and bled like a stuck pig," he said) but generally has not faced many issues.
"I like to deer hunt, and I like to play golf and turkey hunt," said Andrews, who still lives in the Foxborough, Massachusetts, area. "It's not like I'm riding bulls or dirt bikes and stuff."
ESPN reporters Mike Kaye and Mike Reiss contributed to this story.