The NFL says Baltimore Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy received "appropriate" care from Kansas City’s medical staff after sustaining an eye injury during the teams’ season opener last week.
“It’s disappointing the NFLPA would publicize unsupported conclusions without attempting to understand the facts. We have reviewed the case with the Chiefs’ and Ravens’ medical staffs and are comfortable he received appropriate care,” the league said Thursday night in a statement released by spokesman Brian McCarthy.
Van Noy injured his right eye in the third quarter of the first NFL game last week and said he was “disappointed” about how long it took for Chiefs doctors to see him in the locker room after leaving the field.
“When you get hurt, especially something that can be serious like mine was, you’re supposed to rely on the team’s training staff or their doctors, and I was supposed to see an ophthalmologist,” Van Noy said Tuesday on his podcast with retired defensive tackle Gerald McCoy. “They took an entire quarter to get down to talk to me in the locker room, which to me is unacceptable because then you start thinking, ’What if I was trying to go back in the game? What if I was really, really hurt? I know mine happened to be moderate, but it still was serious because it’s an eye and your expectation of someone to be down there, as the training staff asked them to be down there, would have had a little bit more urgency.”
The Chiefs had no immediate comment on Van Noy’s remarks, which also referenced the organization getting a failing grade for its training staff on NFLPA report cards.
The team's head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder later responded during the team's media availability on Friday.
"I'm pretty upset that he was upset," said Burkholder.
Burkholder explained Friday that he talked "at length" with the Ravens' doctors and exchanged text messages with head coach John Harbaugh to "clear the air."
He said that while it is not required by the NFL or NFLPA to have an ophthalmologist on-site, the Chiefs do have one in the stands as a courtesy to both teams.
Burkholder also told reporters that he asked the Ravens if they needed an ophthalmologist and they originally declined. Once the Ravens evaluated Van Noy and requested an ophthalmologist, Burkholder said the Chiefs got them into the locker room in 12 minutes.
NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell, who visited the Ravens on Thursday as part of his tour around the league, told reporters the medical treatment on-site should be provided “as quickly as possible” under the collective bargaining agreement.
“I think this was an unfortunate situation where that did not occur,” Howell said. “Thank God for Kyle’s situation (that) it wasn’t worse. But here we are with the first game of the season; we got many more games to play. We just can’t have that.”
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