Boomer Esiason Steps Up for Life Insurance Awareness
September 9, 2014 by Lee McDonald
OLDWICK, N.J. – Former pro football star Boomer Esiason discusses events in his early life that led him to a new appreciation for the need for adequate life insurance protection. The retired NFL quarterback spoke with A.M.BestTV as part of special coverage of Life Insurance Awareness Month
Q: In this first episode of the A.M.BestTV special series for Life Insurance Awareness Month: Boomer Esiason, this year’s spokesperson. Throughout September we’ll hear life insurance executives, association leaders and A.M. Best analysts on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry and how they’re responding. Perhaps the challenge starts with one fact: Life insurance ownership in the U.S. is at its lowest level in a half century. Insurers continue to develop a range of savings and protection products but struggle with a fundamental task: convincing more people that protecting their families’ financial assets through life insurance should not be put off. Boomer Esiason learned this lesson close to home.
A: She was a homemaker but had no life insurance and my father had to raise me and my two older sisters. There was no thought of public assistance. My dad made about $35,000 a year, so it was not easy for him. We were not able to hire help. There were times when I would come home to an empty house and he had to wonder whether or not it was going to be burned down.
Q: The bitter memories of those early years taught the future Pro Bowl quarterback about the importance of life insurance.
A: These are things that none of us like to think about but the fact of the matter is you always have to prepare for the unknown and I think that’s what life insurance does for us
Q: As the spokesman for Life Insurance Awareness Month, Boomer Esiason is on a mission to make sure that millennials know the importance of life insurance.
A: So I have a 23-year-old and a 22-year-old — both just graduated from college. And I remember at the age of 23 I was signing my first contract with the Cincinnati Bengals and one of the first things that I did back in 1984 was buy life insurance. I actually bought a single premium life insurance policy — back in the day — knowing that just in case if something did happen to me and I was unable to fulfill my future as a football player that there were family members that I had to take care of. I take that same lesson from 1984, fast forward it to 2014 and tell my kids the same thing.
Q: So is there a correlation between the plays that a quarterback calls on the field and the calls that a responsible adult makes when considering their family’s future?
A: I don’t know what’s going to happen next week, I don’t know what’s going to happen five years from now but I want to make sure I’m prepared. It would be like facing the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers. I knew they were going to blitz. I wasn’t really sure when they were going to blitz or how they were going to blitz, but I knew somewhere along the line I was going to have to be prepared for it. In the games that we won and the games that we played really well, it seemed like I was a step ahead of them. And I would like to think in the game of life that life insurance affords me that same kind of comfort as I would take into the field on Sunday.
Q: Esiason knows he has an uphill batter in convincing people as to the need for life insurance but he has never exactly backed down from a challenge and, as a life-long New York Rangers hockey fan, he understands the virtues of patience.
A: When I tell people about my own experiences and why I believe it’s responsible to take care of those who you love in your life — just in case something happens that you’re not prepared for — that they’re not left holding the bag. That message, I think, is important.
Q: So while Boomer Esiason will never be able to get back those formative years of hardship and struggle he endured here in East Islip, New York, he’s at least secure in the lessons from that time.
A: If something happens to me today, then my family does not ever have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. I’ve taken care of that. It’s my responsibility as the breadwinner in our house to make sure that my family is taken care of.
View the video version of this interview at: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=esiason914
View this and other interviews at http://www.ambest.tv
(By: Lee McDonald: Lee.Mcdonald@ambest.com)
Originally Posted at A.M. Best on September 8, 2014 by Lee McDonald.
Categories: Industry Articles