01-20-2015, 08:12 AM
Boston Card cites an interesting factoid about no college player ever collecting on loss of value insurance. I don't know whether or not that is true but I believe it. We have been asked about that with Henry, but I think the insurance is just a ripoff unless[b][/b] you are an Andrew Luck or a John Elway or [pick your favorite consensus, no-doubt No. 1 pick]. The problem is, unless you are THE unanimous No. 1 pick (or even clear top 5 pick), how do you prove damages? The amount you would presumably collect under the policy would be the difference between what you would have been paid if fully healthy minus the amount you actually were paid as the lower draft pick.Â
Speaking as one who frequently deals with insurance in my line of work, good luck proving that number. You would need one or more experts [for example, a real NFL GM] to testify under oath that had you been fully healthy, our team would have picked you in the first round with our pick, but since you were hurt you dropped to the fourth round, or whatever. Sounds easy, but I doubt you could find an actual GM to swear under oath that, by God, player X was definitely our first round pick, but for the injury. It is NEVER that easy, again, unless you are talking about the extremely small handful of players, like Andrew Luck for example, about whom you probably actually could get a GM to testify about that.Â
For a player like Henry, the insurance made zero sense, because his draft position was certainly not the sure-fire top 5 pick (particularly at the end of the 2013 season when he had been injured part of the year), and so measuring the "drop" would be virtually impossible. When colleges like ND or anyone else pay for the insurance, (a) I assume they probably get it cheaper than what the individual would pay, and (b) it is worth every penny if they get a valuable veteran player to stay on one more year. It is basically window dressing that conveys to the player that the school really cares about you and we don't want your decision to stay to result in you making less down the road. But it is not altruistic.
Eric
Speaking as one who frequently deals with insurance in my line of work, good luck proving that number. You would need one or more experts [for example, a real NFL GM] to testify under oath that had you been fully healthy, our team would have picked you in the first round with our pick, but since you were hurt you dropped to the fourth round, or whatever. Sounds easy, but I doubt you could find an actual GM to swear under oath that, by God, player X was definitely our first round pick, but for the injury. It is NEVER that easy, again, unless you are talking about the extremely small handful of players, like Andrew Luck for example, about whom you probably actually could get a GM to testify about that.Â
For a player like Henry, the insurance made zero sense, because his draft position was certainly not the sure-fire top 5 pick (particularly at the end of the 2013 season when he had been injured part of the year), and so measuring the "drop" would be virtually impossible. When colleges like ND or anyone else pay for the insurance, (a) I assume they probably get it cheaper than what the individual would pay, and (b) it is worth every penny if they get a valuable veteran player to stay on one more year. It is basically window dressing that conveys to the player that the school really cares about you and we don't want your decision to stay to result in you making less down the road. But it is not altruistic.
Eric