Gronkowski Trades USAA Spots for eMaxx's Captive Insurance Play

Rob Gronkowski, the retired New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end long seen in USAA insurance commercials, has signed on as spokesman for eMaxx Assurance Group, a Tampa-headquartered provider of risk-managed, captive-based commercial insurance.

Gronkowski will represent eMaxx in brand campaigns, marketing efforts and community initiatives, the company announced. The deal formalizes a personal connection that goes back years.

"The Gronkowski and the McCarthy families have had a relationship for many, many years," Gronkowski said at a recent news conference. He was referring to the family of Brian McCarthy, eMaxx's CEO, who has ties to both New England and Tampa and has supported some of Gronkowski's charity efforts over the years.

Why did Gronkowski leave USAA?

The move ends one of the most recognizable endorsement runs in insurance advertising. Gronk, as he's known, made the split sound amicable and deliberate.

"Everyone knows me from the USAA commercials, but it was time everyone moved on, and I think this is the best opportunity and, I think, the right opportunity," Gronkowski said.

There's an asymmetry in name recognition here. Gronk is a household name; eMaxx is not — at least not yet. The company operated under the name Energi until 2018, when it specialized in liability and property coverage for the energy industry.

What does eMaxx actually sell?

After 2018, the firm diversified beyond energy into commercial coverage for many more business and industry sectors. But it did so with an unusual structure: insureds must take extensive risk-abatement measures as a condition of coverage.

The requirements vary by exposure. For trucking fleets, that can mean telematics technology to monitor driver safety. For Florida buildings, wind and storm-surge mitigation. For structures in wildfire-prone areas, vegetation reduction and fire suppression around the property.

The logic is financial. McCarthy said he had seen the costly impact lawsuits can have on guaranteed-cost insurance firms, and getting insureds to share responsibility for losses was the key to writing certain lines sustainably.

"We felt the only way to effectively write commercial auto and general liability was through the members assuming risk in order to get them to implement the risk management that they needed to do," McCarthy told Insurance Journal in a recent interview.

Does the model work?

The playbook seems to be working, according to the company. eMaxx positions itself against traditional guaranteed-cost carriers by tying premiums and coverage to demonstrated loss prevention, rather than absorbing losses after the fact.

What's the so-what?

For eMaxx, the Gronkowski hire buys instant national recognition for a brand that only shed its Enerni-era energy-sector identity a few years ago. For Gronkowski, it converts a longtime family friendship with the McCarthy clan into a business role in his post-NFL home market of Tampa.

The bet for both sides: that a celebrity pitchman best known for car insurance ads can carry a more complicated message — that commercial insurance priced on shared risk and active loss prevention can outcompete the guaranteed-cost model that lawsuits have made expensive.