|
|
Kyle Van Noy and the Baltimore Ravens kicked their season off in epic fashion by taking on the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. The Ravens weren’t able to avenge last season’s AFC Conference Championship loss, but they lost by mere inches as Isaiah Likely was ruled out of bounds on a last-minute touchdown catch.
But long before the Ravens took the 27-20 loss down to the wire, Ravens outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy suffered an orbital fracture. Since the Ravens were on the road, this meant Van Noy required the medical assistance of the home team, and the Chiefs reportedly didn’t respond with urgency.
Kyle Van Noy ‘disappointed’ in Kansas City Chiefs’ F-rated medical staff
This past summer, all 32 NFL teams received grades from the NFLPA after multiple players were polled anonymously. The Kansas City Chiefs finished with the lowest grade you can get, an ‘F‘ for their medical staff.
Kyle Van Noy isn’t even a member of the Chiefs, but he experienced firsthand how bad the Chiefs’ medical team is.
“I was disappointed in the way the training staff of the Chiefs handled the situation. When you get hurt, especially something that could 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, which is somebody who checks out eye performance, eye surgery, and 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?
Mine happened to be moderate but it still was serious because it’s the eye, and your expectation of someone to be down there as the training staff asks them to be down there, would have had some more urgency. I just feel like, as a player, people have that expectation of you being professional, handling business. And in a time of need, I wanted that from them, and I felt like I didn’t get it.”
Perhaps the Chiefs did this for competitive reasons? As Van Noy said, “What if he was trying to get back in the game?” What if this was a Chiefs player who suffered the injury? Surely, Kansas City’s medical team would have treated the injury more urgently. But maybe not.
As for the ‘F’ grade the Chiefs got this past summer? Van Noy says he can see why Kansas City’s medical staff graded so poorly. He’d give them an F too.
“The players have given that training room an F. With my experience, I would’ve probably after that gave them an ‘F,’ too.”
Related: Super Bowl odds: Every team’s championship futures for 2024 NFL season