Boomer Esiason To Serve As National Spokesperson For Life Insurance Awareness Month This September

​CLife and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) June 24, 2013

 

​ARLINGTON, Va., June 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – This September, Boomer Esiason will take a break from the booth to talk about another kind of key play – the decision to buy life insurance. The MVP quarterback and notable network color commentator is serving as national spokesperson for Life Insurance Awareness Month, an annual campaign coordinated by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation to educate Americans about the importance of life insurance as part of a sound financial plan.

 

According to LIMRA, 41 percent of U.S. adults are not covered by life insurance today – an all-time low – leaving approximately 95 million adults without a financial safety net. Boomer is partnering with LIFE to help encourage those who don’t have any life insurance or those who may not have enough to get the coverage they need. It is a message that hits close to home for Boomer and one he’ll be sharing through his own personal story throughout the campaign.

 

Boomer Esiason’s Life Insurance Story

 

When he was just 7 years old, Boomer’s mother died of cancer, leaving his father to raise him and his two sisters alone. She had been a stay-at-home mom and took care of everything in the household while his dad made the three-hour roundtrip commute each day from Long Island to Manhattan to earn the family’s only income as an engineer. Since Boomer’s mom did not have life insurance, his dad had to work extremely hard to maintain his work obligations and ensure things were taken care of at home.

 

“We were very lucky that we had neighbors who could help out and make sure I got something to eat and was being looked after while my dad was at work,” said Boomer. “We lived paycheck to paycheck, but my dad was completely unselfish and did an incredible job taking care of our family. He taught me the true meaning of what it means to be a responsible dad.”

 

As Boomer’s sports career started to take shape, his dad never missed a game and attended most practices to cheer him on. He also didn’t hesitate to hand over his last five dollars when Boomer needed money for a date. It was these sacrifices that Boomer credits with his appreciation now for taking personal responsibility for the care and financial wellbeing of his own family.

 

From the beginning, Boomer has protected his family with life insurance. And as his career has grown, as an MVP quarterback and now a radio and TV broadcaster– serving as an analyst for The NFL Today on CBS and co-host of Boomer and Carton on WFAN – his life insurance coverage has grown as well.

 

“Life insurance is about protecting the future and the people you love. That’s especially the case when you’re caring for someone with special needs,” said Boomer, whose oldest son Gunnar was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 2. “I have been well insured since I was first drafted to play professionally. My wife is covered and I have recently begun talking to my daughter, who’s 22, about insurance. I have to be able to put my head on my pillow each night knowing I’ve fulfilled my responsibility to make sure my family will always be taken care of.”

Boomer to Share His Story this September

 

Boomer will share his story in TV and radio public service announcements (PSAs) broadcast nationally beginning in August and continuing until the end of the year. The PSAs will be available on the LIFE Foundation’s website at www.lifehappens.org/liam-psa, along with educational information and interactive tools and calculators to help consumers evaluate their own life insurance needs.

 

“Boomer’s story shows that if you have people who depend on you, whether or not you’re the primary breadwinner, you need life insurance. Unfortunately, while most people agree that it is important, we are experiencing the lowest level of life insurance ownership in 50 years, and even those who have coverage have far less than experts recommend,” said Marvin H. Feldman, CLU, ChFC, RFC, president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation. “We’re extremely proud to have Boomer share his experiences as the voice of our campaign and hope that together we can encourage more people to think about getting life insurance to protect their families.”

For a blog post with more details about Life Insurance Awareness Month and Boomer’s role as spokesperson, please click here.

 

About Life Insurance Awareness Month Life Insurance Awareness Month was created by the LIFE Foundation in 2004 in response to growing concern about the large number of Americans who lack adequate life insurance protection. Held each September, Life Insurance Awareness Month is an industry-wide effort involving hundreds of leading companies and thousands of insurance advisors. For more information about Life Insurance Awareness Month and LIFE’s plans for the September campaign, visit www.lifehappens.org/liam.

 

About LIFE The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) inspires the public to take personal financial responsibility through the ownership of life insurance and related products. LIFE is the voice of choice for the industry providing the highest quality independent and objective information about life insurance and related products. To learn more about LIFE, go to www.lifehappens.org.

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Jim Kelly is Cancer Free

Chris Brown June 24th, 2013

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It was the news Jim Kelly was hoping for following surgery to remove part of his jaw that was stricken with cancer. Last week on a follow-up visit to the physicians that performed his surgery June 7th, Kelly was told he was cancer free and for now would avoid chemotherapy.

“I found out great news on Wednesday,” Kelly said Monday at the opening of his 26th annual Jim Kelly Football Camp. “I don’t have to go through radiation treatment and chemo, which is a blessing. From what I’ve been told everything that they did in surgery, if I had to do radiation or chemo it would put me way back.”

Kelly had the left side of his jaw removed in surgery earlier this month along with all the teeth on the left side of his mouth in addition to several in front. To replace what was removed Kelly had a skin graft performed where tissue was harvested from his left leg to be used in his mouth.

Despite all the surgeries and rehabs he had as a player and the back, neck and hernia surgeries he’s endured over the past three years, Kelly said the soreness coming out of this procedure has been the most difficult to deal with.
“The worst part about my cancer is it’s right here in the area of my mouth,” said Kelly. “They had to remove most of my jaw on my left side. It’s very, very sore, but it takes time. I know when you have knee surgery or shoulder surgery it’s sore for a small period of time and rehab and everything is good and you just take your time. This is just constant pain for now, but it’s a small price to pay for where I’ll be later on down the road.”

Kelly, who is cancer free now, understands there’s the possibility that the cancer could return. To monitor that the Hall of Fame quarterback will be returning to his doctors every two months for checkups. For now he was more than happy to sidestep chemotherapy.

“Big time relief,” he said. “Trust me, prayers definitely have a big part in it. I’ve received so many letters and emails from people that have had similar circumstances as I did and some of them were not very good and some of them were very good. You’re encouraged on one hand and discouraged on the other. To find out where they’ve been and the prognosis of where I’m going I’m very excited. I’m happy.

“I never thought I’d be saying cancer. I never though the ‘C’ word would become part of my vocabulary. But it is what has happened to me and the ups and downs of my life. I’m already on the way back up.”

He’s hopeful that it a year’s time he’s back to normal. Kelly has lost 14 pounds purely based on his restrictions with food intake as he can only eat soft foods. The former QB says he’s like to lose another 10 to 15.

Kelly was also quick to thank all of his supporters that sent prayers and well wishes for a positive outcome and speedy recovery.

“I want to thank personally everybody from this area,” said Kelly of the Western New York community. “This community has rallied around me when I played for the Bills, when my son Hunter was diagnosed and of course my latest setback with cancer.

 

“The community’s prayers there are not enough words to describe the feeling in my heart and my family’s heart how much it means to me to have people take the time to email me, write me hundreds and hundreds of letters.

 

Those prayers have been answered because of the things that I don’t have to do now.”