This paper investigates what constitutes a good rule maker and a good rule functionally, semantically, and pragmatically. It applies this analysis to the NFL Injury Reporting Policy. The NFL injury report policy constitutes Bayesian reporting under uncertainty, which means that teams are asked to report the probability of a player being on the roster on Sunday according to the categories of Probable, Questionable, Doubtful, or Out. The paper concludes that this policy generates bad rules. The unique nature of Bayesian reporting under uncertainty allows for dishonest reporting to go undetected and unpunished. The paper concludes by speculating about the origin of the policy, the stakeholders’s interests in having a rule which makes identifying instances of infringement nearly impossible, and the shows the strategies of teams reporting dishonestly to gain a competitive advantage. The paper combines the tools of philosophy of law, philosophy of language, economics, and managerial research.
About the presenterSeth Vannatta
Seth Vannatta is a professor in the department of philosophy and religious studies at Morgan State University. His research areas include American pragmatism, philosophy of law, and popular culture and philosophy. He is the editor of two volumes in popular culture and philosophy, Chuck Klosterman and Philosophy: The Real and the Cereal (2012) and The Wire and Philosophy: This America, man (2013) and author of Conservatism and Pragmatism in Law, Politics, and Ethics (2014).