Sports leagues try to deal with misbehaving athletes

	The NFL is trying to clamp down on off-field transgressions and suspended Pacman Jones for an entire season. AP

I can't remember a time when the general misbehavior of athletes has been more widespread. This delinquency not only dominates the sports pages today, but the athletes are proudly managing to transgress in all the many and varied ways.

There are, generally speaking, three categories of sports malfeasance. The first is unsportsmanlike activity during the game itself -- what commonly falls under the rubric of "dirty play." We've witnessed the classic form of this in the NBA playoffs. Second, is off-the-field misconduct, which either goes under the heading of "boys will be boys" or . . . more succinctly: crime. The NFL is indisputably the ongoing leader in this category. Finally we have the athletic version of white-collar crime -- pre-meditated cheating -- and, of course, drug accusations here most continue to roil baseball.

Now, at the outset, it is important to understand that athletes have always been naughty boys. None of this stuff is original sin. Athletes are young men, on the road, attracted to bright lights, intoxicating beverages and friendly women. Nowadays they also possess more money than they know what to do with. Moreover, football players are engaged in recreational mayhem at work and so have inevitably seemed predisposed to continue to exhibit such savage behavior in their down time. As for the games themselves, you can barely find an old-timer in any sport who doesn't think that the play used to be more ferocious and less gentlemanly.

But if none of this anti-social activity is new with members of this vocation, yes, there does indeed seem to be more extreme violent behavior. Too many players appear to find themselves late at night where somebody, packing heat, gets upset and starts shooting. And there just seems to be more and more incidents involving athletes perpetrating brutality against women.

To their credit, the commissioners are on alert. Roger Goodell of the NFL has taken it upon himself to suspend players for their off-the-field behavior. That's not usual. And, before the recent draft, many teams foreswore that they were not merely looking for physicality in their choices, but for "character." Of course, character has always been a word people in sports love to attribute to sports. Generally, be on guard when you hear it tossed about. But Goodell's message seems to be getting through.

David Stern of the NBA played the real hanging judge after an egregiously ugly incident in a playoff game between San Antonio and Phoenix. In fact, he horribly overreacted, but then, while dirty play does not intrinsically measure up to more serious off-the-field brutality, what we are able to see is so much more influential. Especially this is true with children. If players are the modern heroes their admirers make them out to be, then visible on-the-field transgressions must be taken more seriously.

In the old expression, to whom much is given, much is expected. Likewise, in modern times, to whom much is on television, much is inexcusable. Sorry, but that's the devil's bargain with celebrity.