Thomas Mott Osborne: “I rise in support of H.R. 3369. There is no question there has been a huge increase in personal injury lawsuits targeted…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 3369. There is no question there has been a huge increase in personal injury lawsuits targeted at rulemaking bodies in recent years, such as Pop Warner, Little League, high school athletic associations and on and on. Sports-governing authorities' premiums have risen, as has been stated previously, from about 120 percent to about 1,000 percent. At least one known carrier has completely dropped providing general liability coverage, while three others are looking at nonrenewing all policies. So this is a concern, and so the rulemaking bodies will be driven out of existence if they, number one, cannot afford the premium or, number two, if they just simply cannot get coverage. This would take roughly 7 million high school athletes right off the field, and I think that the good that is done by college athletics and amateur sports far outweighs what we might see in terms of lawsuits. The legal attack against all rulemaking bodies relies on the presumption that rules should eliminate all risk in athletic competition. In 1905, the NCAA was formed to eliminate the flying wedge. Recently, in football, a person cannot block with their head. They cannot chop block; clipping; practice in sweat clothes during the early season; water breaks; spring practice rules and so on. Yet if some young man decides to go out and tackle with his head down or has a spinal injury, there is absolutely no way we can prevent that.”