Football injuries, safety standards, and insurance underwriting

American football produces injuries, which produce costs, which produce expectations for two types of insurance: accident/medical and liability. Underwriters for insuring carriers rely on ''experience'' and the interpretation of that experience to determine the ''whether'' and ''how much'' of coverage. For accidents and the direct costs experienced, this is a more objective process than for liability. For the latter the standards against which a defendant would be judged can be objective if available from a standard-promulgating source, or they must be derived from the opinion of an array of experts. ASTM provides a process for capturing expert consensus when it exists.