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Is insurance the end of football as we know it?

The NFL may eventually find itself in the insurance business if it wants to survive. It seems less likely each year that football will remain sustainable long term.
They said the same about boxing 20-30 years ago. It may take a step back but it will not go away. As big as March madness is it does not touch the money football makes. As big as the NBA is... it does not touch the NFL. The superbowl is still the biggest thing on American TV every year. No other sports even come close to those. At least not in the USA.
 
Well that sounds like a pretty self-serving quote. Come to me and I'll get it worked out for you. The more disruption and fear, the better for the Fairly Group.

The Fairly Group isn’t an insurer. They try to find insurance markets for clients - mostly professional and college sports teams. Including UNL at some point if my memory serves correct - he brought me back a nice Huskers Hoodie once. So the more markets there are for insurance, the better for the Fairly Group, and vice versa.

The NFL is now naked on the liability piece - completely self insuring because there are no more markets. So it’s a huge loss to the Fairly Group I would assume.
 
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They said the same about boxing 20-30 years ago. It may take a step back but it will not go away. As big as March madness is it does not touch the money football makes. As big as the NBA is... it does not touch the NFL. The superbowl is still the biggest thing on American TV every year. No other sports even come close to those. At least not in the USA.

Boxing and football = apples and oranges. You don’t have pop warner, middle school, high school, and college boxing with a roster of 50 players, with tens of thousands of athletes spanning the country.

The NFL will survive because they can afford to. But what kind of slush fund for future claims can UNL stash back? A hundy? What about the Kearney States ? What about Lincoln School District?

The popularity of football is indisputable. But if the risks of it can no longer adequately be insured, the future viability of it is equally indisputable. Someone eventually has to pay the proverbial freight for future claims that are coming down the track.

The NFL settlement ripped a bandaid off of a nasty, oozing wound.
 
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The NFL may eventually find itself in the insurance business if it wants to survive. It seems less likely each year that football will remain sustainable long term.

The article states they already are in the insurance business by default - there are no available markets any more for injury liability insurance. They are what is called “naked” in the insurance world.
 



Boxing and football = apples and oranges. You don’t have pop warner, middle school, high school, and college boxing with a roster of 50 players, with tens of thousands of athletes spanning the country.

The NFL will survive because they can afford to. But what kind of slush fund for future claims can UNL stash back? A hundy? What about the Kearney States ? What about Lincoln School District?

The popularity of football is indisputable. But if the risks of it can no longer adequately be insured, the future viability of it is equally indisputable. Someone eventually has to pay the proverbial freight for future claims that are coming down the track.

The NFL settlement ripped a bandaid off of a nasty, oozing wound.
Really. No youth Boxing? Funny twice a year there is a local boxing club standing out side local stores getting money. Silver gloves and golden gloves start at age 10.
 
You would support it because 90% of the money coming in comes from football. Most sports lose money all the way through college. In most D1 schools football pays for the rest. Nebraska uses no state funding for athletics. Why? Football.
Talking about high school football ... not college.

College is a whole different animal.
 
The NFL may eventually find itself in the insurance business if it wants to survive. It seems less likely each year that football will remain sustainable long term.
If high schools ... all but a limited few, eliminate football where are those players eventually going to come from.
 



Talking about high school football ... not college.

College is a whole different animal.

There are very few self sustaining college programs. Most operate by heavily taxing the student body. And if you don’t have pop warner, middle school, and high school football, you certainly don’t have college.
 
Really. No youth Boxing? Funny twice a year there is a local boxing club standing out side local stores getting money. Silver gloves and golden gloves start at age 10.
There is youth boxing in grand island a freind of mine runs it,
It's a pretty big deal
 
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Talking about high school football ... not college.

College is a whole different animal.
In the case of High School it will really depend on the state. TX, AL and Fl even states like NE where it is ingrained in the culture. It will survive.
 
In the case of High School it will really depend on the state. TX, AL and Fl even states like NE where it is ingrained in the culture. It will survive.
I don't know ... would a state like NE have the wherewithal to field enough teams to be competitive.

I suspect you might see more of the IMG Academy sports-first type institutions that sponsor elite athletes and the IMG academy of Omaha plays the IMG Academy of Lincoln, Kansas City, Des Moines and Topeka.
 



Here's an interesting wrinkle to consider. If insurance prohibits/slows the financial side of football, you might see a severe collapse of mid-major teams. I'd argue that on some levels, that's not an inherently bad thing, as the end result is that teams like Alabama, USC, Nebraska or Penn State persist (because we have the resources) while teams like Iowa State, Tulsa or Fresno State dry up.

It's a terrible way to go, but the end result is that the blue bloods will probably remain largely unaffected, except that you'd have fewer teams sharing the talent pool. All the curmudgeons that gripe about there being 900 bowl games might actually be pleased with NCAA football that has ~40 teams left and features 8 or 10 bowls.
 
If we know that smoking is bad for you and yet we allow it, what is the difference with anything else? Smokers, football players, boxers, mma, drunk drivers, drugs, race car drivers, cliff diving, parasailing it can be/is all bad/dangerous for you and we know it yet we do it, at what point does it become the individuals responsibility not everyone else? Do we legislate everything to death and if not what is or isn't legislated?
 

If we know that smoking is bad for you and yet we allow it, what is the difference with anything else? Smokers, football players, boxers, mma, drunk drivers, drugs, race car drivers, cliff diving, parasailing it can be/is all bad/dangerous for you and we know it yet we do it, at what point does it become the individuals responsibility not everyone else? Do we legislate everything to death and if not what is or isn't legislated?
I would argue anyone who begins playing football today does so with the knowledge that concussions are an inherent part of the risk. Not so much 20 years ago.

People smoke today ... but much less than 20 years ago. Same for football.
 

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