While every loss hurts for a player, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy is still carrying the sting of the team's Week 1 road loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and will be for some time. That's because he unfortunately suffered an fractured orbital bone that will take some time to heal.
Part of Van Noy's frustration about the injury goes back to the minutes immediately following the injury—and the surprising waiting game to be seen by a doctor thereafter. That's because Van Noy says the Chiefs' medical staff treated him poorly (by not really treating him at all) shortly after suffering the injury.
On his podcast with longtime defensive tackle Gerald McCoy—a podcast on Yahoo! called McCoy & Van Noy—Van Noy spoke openly about his experiences at Arrowhead.
The Ravens linebacker used his podcast as a platform to talk about the lack of treatment for his Week 1 injury.
Van Noy is a solid vet who has been around the block more than once in the NFL, which is why his perspective is important on matters like this. As he's started his 11th year in the league, Van Noy can speak with far more experience than most about what is acceptable—or not—when playing in the league, whether on the road or home.
First, Van Noy described the way he was injured in the first place, when trying to take down Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes along with a Ravens' teammate.
"I suffered an eye injury on the play. My face is flat after hitting Mahomes and then Justin Madubuike hit Mahomes at the same time. My head was flat. Mahomes’ body landed on top of my helmet. My helmet slipped under my chin strap. And then Justin happened to lay his whole body weight on top of me, having the top of my pad helmet in my eye smashing the ground. The ground is undefeated and I ended up suffering that fractured orbital bone in my eye.
"It's a pretty good fracture and still going through tests with specialists and, you know, but I want to get into what I really want to say, which I'm actually disappointed in. I was disappointed in the way the training staff of the Chiefs handled the situation."
If that sounds painful and concerning, it should be, which is why Van Noy goes on to speak about his ongoing concerns with the way Kansas City handled the issue. He also explains why the Chiefs are responsible here as the home team, since some fans would likely wonder why the Ravens aren't handling things for Van Noy directly.
"When things like that hurt, 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," said Van Noy. "And I was supposed to see a ophthalmologist, which is somebody who checks out eyes—performs, you know, 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?’
"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 him to be down there would have had a little bit more urgency. And just the way it took time was super unprofessional to me.
"There were people that were in there, too. One of the doctors, or the friend of the doctor, was in there double cup fisted styrofoam cups like everything was good. And I just felt like that was unprofessional."
Understanding the Chiefs' poor NFLPA grades
At this point, Van Noy brings up the most recent results of the annual NFLPA Team Report Cards for the Chiefs. It's an anonymous survey of players intended to grade several behind-the-scenes aspects of a franchise, from the way they treat player's families to a team's weight room to their travel habits. The Chiefs scored poorly in a few key areas and the training staff was given an "F" with results like, "Only 43% of players feel like they receive enough one-on-one treatment (32nd overall)."
Let's get back to what Van Noy was saying on his podcast:
"I understand how Kansas City, the players have given that training room an F because with my experience, I would have probably after that given them an F too. … 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, you know? Blah, blah, blah, blah," said Van Noy.
"Those are, those are just the thoughts that go into it. I don't think it was that, but, you know, at the same time, I don't want them to come out and apologize. It is what it is. Like, you know, it's all good. I don't need somebody to come out with a press release and say they apologize. ‘We take care of our players. Blah, blah, blah, blah.’
"I experienced it. I know the training room that I was in knows—we know the truth. And it was just disappointing because I wanted that to be handled because I feel like I deserved care in that."
Praise for KU Medical Center
The good news is that Van Noy did receive excellent treatment at some point during his time in Kansas City, and he made sure to include his time at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
"Now, fast forward to going to the hospital that night at the ER. I don't know if they handled that or my trainers and the doctors were handling, they executed," said Van Noy. "So I do want to shout out KU Medical for doing a great job. They took care of me the wee hours into the morning, did an awesome job getting all the info really quickly. And so I appreciate that. So if they did have their hands on that, I do applaud them for that. Everything went smoothly there. "
In the end, however, Van Noy is left with a poor experience of Arrowhead and a bad taste about the Chiefs in general—not just as rivals on the field but as someone with 143 games of experience for a handful of franchises across the league.
"But before that happened, I thought that was kind of ridiculous. Well, you know what, Kansas City? This is a children's show, so I'm going to keep it PG, but that ain't cool."
You can watch the entire podcast episode here of McCoy & Van Noy: