In the third quarter of the NFL season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy suffered a fractured orbital bone. He was attended to by the Ravens’ staff on the field, but eventually left for examination from the Chiefs’ in-house ophthalmologist — who drew the ire of the two-time Super Bowl champion.
On his “McCoy & Van Noy” podcast, Van Noy said it took Kansas City’s personnel an entire quarter to come down and attend to him.
“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?’” Van Noy said, via the Baltimore Banner.
Van Noy said he expected “a little bit more urgency” from the Chiefs ophthalmologist, and called the response time “super unprofessional.”
“To me, I just feel like, as a player, people have that expectation of you being professional, handling business,” Van Noy said. “And in a time of need, I wanted that from them, and I felt like I didn’t get it. Because then you get into, like, ‘Did they take their time because I’m a Ravens player? Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.’ Those are just the thoughts that go into it. I don’t think it was that. But at the same time, I don’t want them to come out and apologize. It is what it is. Like, it’s all good. I don’t need them to come out with a press release and say they apologize, ‘We take care of our players, blah-blah-blah.’ I experienced it.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, “an orbital fracture is when you break one or more of the bones that make up your eye socket. … This bony cavity contains your eyeball, eye muscles, blood vessels, nerves and other structures. Blunt force trauma — when something hits your eye very hard — is the most common cause of an orbital fracture.” It’s unclear when Van Noy could potentially return to the field.