CHARLOTTE - North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough doesn't worry about his NBA future despite being bruised, nicked, bloodied -- and sometimes broken -- by his aggressive style of play.

"I think it does concern my parents at times, though,'' he said.

Which is why the All-America is one of three Tar Heels starters, along with point guard Ty Lawson and shooting guard Wayne Ellington, who has a special insurance policy that protects him in the case of a career-ending injury.

"I don't even want to think about, talk about, the possibility of him getting seriously hurt,'' said Gene Hansbrough, who first took out a policy on his son when Tyler was a senior in high school. "But it does give him some level of protection to fall back on, just in case."

The investment is expensive. Once they leave school, players get bills for premiums usually in the range of $20,000, although they can top $50,000. And the protection rarely pays off, mostly because of medical advances and the limited instances of devastating injuries.

Still, the insurance has become as standard as autograph requests and ESPN highlights for elite college athletes who stand to make millions in the pros.

Hansbrough, a junior, originally was insured by Lloyd's of London, but he switched to an NCAA-sponsored program during his freshman season, his father said. His policy is worth close to $4.4 million, the NCAA's current maximum for men's basketball players. Ellington and Lawson, both sophomores, also became eligible and signed up for policies through the NCAA during their freshman seasons. Their parents declined to disclose the amounts of their policies, but even players projected to be chosen near the bottom of the first round of the NBA Draft are eligible for $500,000 policies.

Eventually, UNC forwards Deon Thompson and Danny Green could be candidates. On top 10 teams, it's not unusual for multiple players to be insured, said Keith Lerner, an insurance underwriter and CEO of Total Planning in Gainesville, Fla.

"There won't be a player drafted in the first round this year that doesn't have insurance," predicted Lerner, who has been in business 20 years. "... These are guys who are going to be making millions in the NBA. So it makes business sense to protect that. ... The cost will come out of their first paycheck."

A variety of reasons

Insurance policies have been available through private underwriters for decades.

The NCAA launched its Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability Insurance program in 1990 for men's basketball and football players. Baseball was added in 1991, hockey in 1993 and women's basketball in 1998.

The reason for the program isn't to protect student-athletes' pro careers but to safeguard their college ones, said Juanita Sheely, the NCAA's manager of travel and insurance.

"Back in its original inception, the idea was to help get agents out of the mix," Sheely said. "Agents would promise, 'I will get you this insurance coverage if you sign with me.' And immediately, if there was any kind of agreement there, the student-athlete lost his eligibility."

One company, HCC Specialty Underwriters of Wakefield, Mass., is the administrator of the program and also handles other insurance needs for the NCAA, including protecting its signature event of the year -- the men's basketball tournament -- in the case of disruptions, cancellations or other trouble.

Roughly 100 to 150 athletes per year have the insurance at any one time, Sheely said. And at certain points in the year, as many as 40 basketball players can be in the program, said Jeff Stanley, senior sports underwriter at HCC.

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