You're a pro, now act like a professional

In the last 20 years, technological advances have made pro athletes more famous than ever before. Innovations in the way sports are reported, with novelties such as websites and 24-hour sports channels like ESPN, have made household names out of more athletes than at any point in history.

As a result of increased public recognition, many athletes have become celebrities outside the domain of their sports. Whereas in the past only transcendent athletes like Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali became famous enough to draw the attention of the American public as a whole, even an average athlete today can garner lots of media coverage.

Many pros are now celebrities as well as athletes. As a result, networks such as ESPN, which initially focused only on reporting and analyzing aspects of athletic competition, have increased their scope to cover the private lives of athletes. Shows like ESPN's "Shaquille," which focused on the life of NBA All-Star Shaquille O'Neal, prove that viewers see pro athletes not just as athletes, but as overall celebrities.

It's true that this evolution can be seen as a good thing for sports, as evidenced by recent attendance records and the rise in charitable work by many athletes. Recent trends, however, suggest that the unprecedented rise in celebrity status is actually detrimental to the integrity of professional team sports because, as athletes become more famous, they inevitably buy into the hype that surrounds them and begin to act in unprofessional ways.

For this reason, I take issue with athletes like Kobe Bryant, who publicly demanded to be traded from a team that pays him $19 million per year to play basketball, because pro athletes should be seen as employees who are paid to do a specific job. Their ability to dunk a basketball or hit a baseball 500 feet does not relieve them of the expectations that come with being employed within any American industry.

In terms of acting professionally, Kobe Bryant's public demand to be traded from the Lakers is comparable to President Tilghman insisting to the media that she be traded to Yale. I see little difference between Tilghman's being employed to lead a university and Kobe's responsibility to lead an offense. Both work with the expectation that their actions and behavior will contribute to the success of their respective organizations. If Tilghman wanted to go to Yale, she would, like nearly every other professional on Earth, seek negotiations with those in charge of such matters. Kobe, on the other hand, complains publicly because he sees himself as a celebrity worthy of the media's attention.

A similar analysis can be used to evaluate athletes who break the law and are subsequently suspended by their league. The issue here is greater than simply the laws broken. Since the league can suspend an athlete in this situation, the player's actions and resultant absence will have a detrimental effect on his team's on-field performance. An athlete's violating the law, therefore, is inherently unprofessional.

In this context, Michael Vick's involvement in dog fighting is not only contemptible, but unprofessional as well. Vick knowingly engaged in behavior that he knew could lead to his suspension, and his actions, therefore, were categorically unprofessional because they were a violation of his contract with the Falcons.

Some might contend that there is no way to tell whether celebrity treatment leads to an athlete's poor behavior or that it is unfair to assume that an athlete's life should be focused on contributing to his team. Nonetheless, the conclusion remains: We can reasonably hold athletes to the same standards to which we hold people in other professional industries, regardless of that athlete's celebrity status.

If we pardon professional athletes, we compromise the integrity of professional sports and relegate world-class athletics to merely a form of entertainment.

And if we truly believe that professional athletes are more than just celebrities, that the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB are inherently more prestigious than gimmicks like the WWE, then we must make a conscious effort to hold athletes accountable for their conduct.