Former Dolphins and Eagles running back Jay Ajayi received the settlement for his $5MM loss-of-value insurance policy this week, according to a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. It was a much-deserved payoff that was undeservedly delayed due to years of resistance from the insurance company. 
Ajayi’s career was an incredible flash in the pan. The Boise State-legend was drafted in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft to Miami. The Dolphins had little use for rookie-Ajayi as he sat behind bell-cow back Lamar Miller. He entered his sophomore season as a backup, as well, as Miller and former Texans running back Arian Foster traded places in free agency and Foster was named the starter to begin the season.
The first four weeks of the year saw Foster suffer an injury and retire mid-season, leaving Ajayi to take the reins running the ball. In his second, third, and fourth starts, Ajayi racked up 204, 214, and 111 yards, respectively, becoming only the fourth player in NFL history, along with O.J. Simpson, Earl Campbell, and Ricky Williams, to rush for over 200 yards in two consecutive games. Ajayi would go on to be named a Pro Bowler at the end of his second season, despite starting the year as a backup.
The next year, Ajayi was traded mid-season to Philadelphia, where he would go on to win a Super Bowl ring. Ajayi would finish out his rookie contract with the Eagles, but would only see four games of action before tearing his ACL and missing the remainder of the last season of his contract. Suffering a season-ending, long-term injury in a contract year is a nightmare scenario for any young player. Fortunately for Ajayi, he was prepared.
According to Rapoport, Ajayi’s business manager, Josh Sanchez, disclosed that the then-25-year-old running back had purchased a loss-of-value insurance policy that covered the year to protect him against loss of free agent value due to injury. He had purchased a similar policy the prior year, a policy that tends to run in the range from $80,000-$100,000. The policy covered a maximum loss-of-value of $5MM, meaning that if it could be proven that an injury negatively affected the value of Ajayi’s next contract, Ajayi would be entitled to the difference in value up to $5MM.
Despite a bit of a down year following his Pro Bowl season, Ajayi likely would’ve been one of the premier, young running backs to hit free agency. Instead, after his injury, Ajayi re-signed with the Eagles on a one-year deal. His second contract was only worth $805,000. Clearly, Ajayi had a case to cash-in on his insurance policy.
Unfortunately, in the world of insurance, successful insurance companies make money by finding loopholes and delaying payment for as long as possible. The insurance companies handling NFL loss-of-value policies are no different. Thus ensued a multi-year battle for Ajayi to get what he deserved.
Again, unfortunately, the battle doesn’t appear to have been a victory, but rather a draw, a compromise. The fact that Ajayi received a “settlement” insinuates that Ajayi did not receive the full $5MM maximum award, despite only appearing in three games after his injury, the ACL tear effectively ending his career. Regardless, it should still be seen as a small win that Ajayi will receive something for his foresight and proper preparation.
There are a lot of reasons insurance proceeds get delayed that are very legitimate and many times insurance buyers think they have something they don’t. I work in insurance and am as frustrated by health insurers and personal lines insurers as much as anyone. But in all of the lines of insurance I’ve ever worked in for many years I have never seen payment delays due to loopholes. Insurance companies generally look to pay legitimate claims as soon as possible to limit defense costs and to close files out. They don’t make more money by delaying a payment they will ultimately know they will make. But I’m sure sport writer Ely Allen knows all about insurance company tactics. Self righteousness trumps qualifications these days.
I appreciate you going after the writer but did Jay’s injury affect his future earnings or not? Wouldn’t take long for this guy sitting on that jury to award $5m and attorney costs.
I had to create account to comment on the opinion piece by the author about insurance tactics but thankfully carlos15 covered everything I wanted to say. I’ve worked in insurance for 15 and I can say my company’s goal is to pay accurately and quickly.
Sounds like a commercial
You CAN say that, but why tell such an obvious lie?
Of course you work in the world of insurance if you defend their nonsense. They literally get rich by screwing people over. Enjoy your loopholes and don’t worry about your soul, that’s a lost cause.
“I work in insurance” is all you needed to say.
As someone who fought (yes, fought!) with a couple insurance companies and the corporation with the policy for several years. Payment delays to loopholes and other excuses (aka “company policies”) is quite common. In fact, about a 25-33% denial rate is the norm. Often making claimants wait until they’re desperate financially!! Anyone who says differently is either “in insurance” or works for a business susceptible to insurance claims.
As for abuse and false claims, like any system there’s about a 3-5% abuse rate.
All one needs to do is look at insurance company profits.
Ely seems to clearly have personal issues with insurance companies. What a scathing attack article. It would be great if there were some research/facts about this particular situation rather than “insurance evil, NFL player (may have) got screwed.”
I’ve had lots of dealing with insurance companies over the years. There’s some good ones and more bad ones. It’s almost always better self-insuring. Ajavi’s case is one of the few where it’s worth the insurance (the losses are greater than Ajavi can bear on his own, paying a slight premium, about double-over par, to make sure he’s not odd-one out in injury musical chairs made good sense. The other good case for insurance is when it’s mandatory (home insurance for instance). You may as well find an insurer who treats its customers well/fairly as you’ll be buying that insurance, like or not.
I’m astonished at the man’s foresight.
all insurance is a scam!
Sounds like footballguy5 in an insurance guy
Lol. You could not be more wrong. It’d be great if people like you were forced to self insure everything you own.
Sounds like you could use some fraud insurance to protect yourself against that.
To me, the fact that retired journeyman players have to take out personal insurance of this type clearly reveals that the NFL players union is doing an inadequate job and that the league itself needs to be doing more.
The league did create a one time fund prior to the most recent CBA agreement but it was conditional on retired players relinquishing their right to seek injury settlements. A short term success for the union but the next generation of retired players will find the fund dry with no legal recourse…so once again an overall win by the owners.
Ely…Do you have any insider information on this situation that you failed to cite? Did you reach out to this particular insurance company for comment? Or is this strictly your uneducated opinion on the matter?
You really shouldn’t post this kind of opinionated content if you don’t know how to do it properly. In other words, be fair to both sides and cite your information.
I see we have more insurance agents reading PFR than I thought.
You don’t have to sell insurance to identify a poorly written and biased piece of “journalism”.
Sorry but I already have enough insurance
Ah, but just think of how many long winded comments you could post in this forum if you had carpal tunnel insurance.
Not surprised that the insurance company would try to get out of paying. I’ve had several instances where I had to fight to get them to pay for something they should. And before you pro-insurance people attack me, I will give you a great example. My son got tubes put in his ears after over twelve infections. They paid for one ear, but I had to fight for a year and a half to get them to pay for the other ear even though the doctor felt it was necessary to do both. They kept saying we didn’t have the correct referral or some nonsense, even though they approved the one ear and they were both done at the same time. They hope people will just give up and pay for stuff themselves. I guarantee a lot of people do and the insurance companies save a ton of money because people get tired of fighting.
Oh and they love to pull the “we’ll put it back in for processing and it will take 30 days and someone will call you back”, but they never do. I’ve gone through that cycle several times, where you have to sit thirty days every time you call and the hospital or doctor’s office gets pissed because they aren’t getting paid, so the insurance company hopes you’ll pay it thinking you’ll get re-imbursed, but you won’t.
Insurance companies are the main reason health care costs are so outrageously high in this country in comparison to other developed countries … period!
Insurance companies are built on getting maximum premiums & reduce payouts in every instance. The insurance companies that give these policies out collect huge premiums but all it takes are a few big claims to wipe out their profits