Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. has announced that...

Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. has announced that it is getting out of the football helmet business, citing increased liability and “skyrocketing” insurance costs. The Fenton, Mo.-based company will continue to manufacture football equipment that is worn from the neck down and to make non-competitive replica helmets, Rawlings spokesman M. Scott Smith said. Litigation involving head and neck injuries was the major factor in the decision, Smith said. In the past 15 years, about 25 helmet liability cases have been tried in court and verdicts have been granted totaling about $46 million, he said. Since 1980, the total has been $39 million. Most of the company’s sales of competitive helmets have been to high schools and colleges, Smith said.