Sportsmanship should be mandatory

Ugly is the word for recent behavior in professional and college sports, and you can't just blame the players - the ugliness extends to players and fans alike.

Although recent altercations have shed new light on the problem, it is not just these well-publicized brawls that have tarnished the sporting world. Every year, it seems, there is some new incident that exposes the very worst in sports.

Not surprisingly, skirmishes are often started by rabid, alcohol-fueled fans who deserve as much punitive attention as the players they provoke.

But it is the players who stand out. They, after all, are the ones that modern society has turned into its heroes, and with that distinction should come a certain amount of responsibility.

Fans actually do seem to respect classy athletes like Magic Johnson and John Elway, but highly paid, preening superstars who complain and throw fits and fists bring out the worst in fans.

The "basketbrawl" in Detroit led to the totally appropriate suspension of nine players for a combined 143 games, most notably a 72-game suspension for Indiana Pacer Ron Artest.

The eruption was triggered by a Detroit Pistons fan who threw a drink, hitting Artest in the chest. That fan, a season ticket holder, has been appropriately banned from the Piston's venue, the Palace.

Good.

Professional and collegiate sports leagues can and should take action to remove fans who are nothing more than hooligans looking to cause trouble. Give them a full refund and tell them never to come back.

Five Pacers, including Artest, stand to lose a whopping $11 million in combined, forfeited salaries for the games they will miss.

Good. Maybe they will learn that a big salary is not a license to take the law into your own hands.

And the Pacers, a team that was in the running for the NBA playoffs, has lost most of its on-court muscle.

Good. That's the price of leaping into the stands and taking swings at fans, even when they are throwing drinks and popcorn.

Failing to do something about abusive fans and out-of-control players will only feed a disintegration of American sports to a point where they resemble riot-prone European sporting events.

Players should not have to endure getting pelted with debris or spit on. Fans should not have to worry about players doing a Mike Tyson imitation and jumping into the stands for blood.

Cleaning up fan behavior would go a long way toward restoring some degree of sportsmanship and civility in athletics. But players must be held to an even higher standard. If fists fly, then let the suspensions and fines fly. Sports leagues owe that to the many good and decent fans who pay to see a game, not a fight.