Running back Jay Ajayi became a Pro Bowler in his second NFL season, generating 1,272 rushing yards with the Dolphins. A year later, he won a Super Bowl with the Eagles.
A year later, early in the final season of his rookie contract, Ajayi blew out his ACL.
He returned to the Eagles late in the 2019 season, playing in only three games. After that, his NFL career was over.
Three years later, the last bit of business regarding his NFL career has been resolved. He has received payment on his loss-of-value insurance policy.
Ajayi’s business manager, Joshua Sanchez, tells Ian Rapoport of NFL Media that “after years of discussions and fighting,” a settlement of Ajayi’s $5 million policy has been reached.
The term “settlement” implies that Ajayi didn’t get the full $5 million. Common sense suggests that he should have gotten every penny. He tore his ACL in the last year of his rookie deal, and he found no takers at all on the open market. Obviously, the torn ACL kept him from getting paid significant money to play the game.
But insurance is a far different game. The insurance industry’s only commodity is money. They love to harvest it in the form of premiums. They hate to pays it out in the form of benefits.
Most insurance policies are riddled with exceptions, exclusions, and conditions. When someone like Jay Ajayi shows up expecting to receive the $5 million in coverage that he purchased, the knee-jerk reaction is to jerk him around. Legitimately, but inevitably. Delay. Resist. Refuse. Make it difficult. Buy time. Hope that the customer eventually will take less than he deserves, years after he deserved to get it.
That’s how the business works. Insurance companies that stubbornly look for policy loopholes often save money -- and far more often make money from having the money that eventually is paid in interest-bearing accounts while the customer waits for that which they purchased.
Ajayi should have gotten all of it, without having to fight. But that’s how it works. Athletes should keep that in mind before making the major investment on a loss-of-value policy, a far more fuzzy and ambiguous standard than the policies that pay benefits only in the event of a career-ending injury.
For NFL players, the best insurance comes from injury guarantees in player contracts. It’s another reason why players should always push to get paid by their current teams, once they’re eligible for second contracts. It’s also why players like Lamar Jackson should not be hesitating to take the team’s money, when the team is ready to give it to him.
