Report: Lack of Insurance Coverage Threatens Sports' Existence

Tuesday, January 29, 2019 | 0

Only one workers’ compensation insurer is willing to provide coverage for National Football League teams, according to an investigative report, and the NFL no longer has general liability insurance for head trauma.

Before a wave of concussion litigation that started in 2011, there were a dozen or more carriers willing to provide coverage to the NFL, according to the report from ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” program.

The unavailability of insurance threatens the existence of pro football, as well as college and youth programs, sources told OTL. And the problem seems to be spreading to other contact sports.

"If you're football, hockey or soccer, the insurance business doesn't want you,” Alex Fairly, CEO of risk management firm the Fairly Group, said in a news article published this month.

Insurers worry that traumatic brain injury cases will play out over decades, potentially exposing them to billions of dollars in medical and legal costs.