It appears private-equity firm Fenway Partners is going with an empty backfield as its best defense against future liabilities over concussions suffered by NFL players.
Fenway’s Easton-Bell Sports — whose Riddell helmets are worn by a majority of NFL players — announced an agreement to sell its growing Easton baseball and softball helmet and bat business to Bauer Performance Sports for $330 million.
The Post last month wrote exclusively that Bauer was in talks to buy the division.
Bauer’s shares rose 8 percent on the news to close at $12.85.
Easton-Bell also announced Thursday that it is working toward an agreement with a third party for the sale of Easton Hockey.
Selling these assets means Easton-Bell will have a smaller balance sheet, with potentially fewer assets to target in pending lawsuits, a source close to the situation said.
The company on Thursday said in a statement, “Proceeds from these transactions will be used to grow and reinforce the market-leadership of the company’s remaining brands — Bell, Riddell, Giro, Blackburn and Easton Cycling — as well as to strengthen the Company’s balance sheet and for other strategic initiatives.”
Easton-Bell will use the proceeds largely to pay down its $326 million in debt, a source said.
Fenway failed to find a buyer for the whole company over the last year since no one was willing to assume Riddell’s liabilities. Now, Fenway is selling what it can in pieces, sources said.
There is the possibility that plaintiffs suing Riddell in a few years, if successful, could force the remaining company into bankruptcy and have trouble collecting large awards, a source close to the situation said.
Presently, there are several prominent suits filed against Easton-Bell and Riddell.
The 2012 suit filed by 4,500 former NFL players claiming concussion damage is against the League, and also Riddell and Easton-Bell.
The NFL players in the suit allege, “Plaintiffs did not know the long-term effects of concussions and relied on the NFL and Riddell to protect them.”
“Despite years of science and medicine linking the risk of long term brain injury from repeat concussions, it was not until the [2002] release of the Revolution Helmet — wherein a notification reminding players to “sit out” if they suffer a concussion was placed on the Revolution helmet,” the suit says.
A host of former NFL players reached a $765 million settlement on the concussion lawsuit in August 2013 with the League, but US District Judge Anita Brody rejected the settlement, “fearing the sum may not be enough to cover injured players.”
Riddell was not a party in that settlement.