Id assume he would have absurdly good health insurance via the nfl though so those costs should be minimal no?
I think, although I'm far from an expert on how insurance works in the US, that even if the NFL's health insurance covered his treatment costs initially they would subrogate against the auto insurance of the driver found at fault. (Early reports were that the other driver may be to blame for the accident.) If they do that then I presume it would come off the $1M liability limit, thus reducing the amount available for a payout. He could of course sue the other driver for additional losses but that assumes that they have the assets to be sued for; an awful lot of people in this world are judgement proof.
Edit: did a bit of reading about this on Reddit and predictably, I was talking quite a bit of hooey. Here's a post from someone who seems to know what they're talking about:
Oversimplified:
1) he'll recover under his own insurance's PIP coverage. It covers most medical bills and some lost wages, but nothing else and is probably not enough to cover his bills so far.
2) he'll have a claim against the other driver, assuming it was the other driver's fault.
3) The other driver's insurance pays that claim first. There's no way to speculate how much the driver's liability insurance limit is. Unfortunately, most people have less than $100k in liability limits. (Honestly, you should get at least a million. The difference in premiums to go from 100k to 1m is often less than $20 a year.) Unless the other driver was on the job or there's someone else responsible, there's probably inadequate coverage.
4) If the other driver's bodily injury liability insurance limits aren't enough to pay the claim, his own underinsured motorist coverage will kick in. Again, most people skimp on insurance, including professional athletes and other wealthy people I've represented. He's unlikely to have enough UIM to pay the full value of his loss.
5) The other driver remains personally liable. The driver can be forced to pay out of his own pocket. However, the debt is dischargeable in bankruptcy unless the driver was illegally intoxicated. Meaning the debt can be wiped out.
6) his own health insurance will get repaid out of the recovery. It's called subrogation. They get however much they've paid in medical bills for the crash. In this case, I'm guessing low hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So he'll be screwed, probably.
I can't believe you're allowed to have such low liability limits. My policy carries $1M and that's pretty standard here, I think. I'm damn sure I didn't request anything extra.
Apparently the other car in the accident was a Maserati, so there is at least a possibility that the other driver has a) a decent policy and b) assets to go after if they're found to be at fault.