Can Probable Trauma Be Compensated? The NFL’s CTE Crisis and the Ethics of Compensating Wages

The mental cognition, dementia, depression, anger, emotional instability, and inability to appropriately interact with family and friends have all been shown to result from “chronic traumatic encephalopathy” (CTE). This is a disease especially associated with football and other contact sports. Recent documentations (book, TV documentary, and film) show the extent that the National Football League (NFL), an industry with 2021 gross revenue in excess of $11 billion, suppressed information concerning the extent and effects of the problem among former players. This ethical breach is examined here in the context of the compensation wage rationale. The mental problems, however, are shown to be related to the philosophical question of “what it is to be a functioning person” in light of the effects of CTE. It is argued that compensating wage theory is inadequate to explain away the generally accepted positive and negative duty obligations of the NFL and its patrons.