By the end of the 20th century, many Americans were questioning the conduct of corporate America and its leaders. Companies such as energy giant Enron, accounting firm Arthur Andersen and telecommunications leader WorldCom dominated front page headlines and provided graphic examples of greed, disdain and rationalization.

The pressure to produce huge profits and, in some cases, huge returns on investments, became too much for some CEOs and accounting managers to bear. Corporate leaders, including Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, David Duncan and Bernard Ebbers, were fired, resigned in disgrace or were tried, convicted and imprisoned. Even Martha Stewart and her flagship company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, were not immune.

These financial catastrophes were responsible, in large part, for the adoption of sweeping legislation, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. And while the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, or SOX, was passed in response to many of these financial scandals, wide-sweeping reforms such as those contained in SOX were required to begin the healing process and restore the public's trust and confidence in corporate leaders.

Were these ethical violations isolated to corporate America? Let's look to professional athletics.

Professional baseball players have appeared before members of the United States Congress defending themselves against allegations of cheating by taking banned, performance-enhancing substances. Major league baseball's reigning homerun king will be forced to endure the stigma of being a cheater (deserved or not) long after he takes his last picture-perfect swing.

The National Basketball Association is under fire for having a referee who not only intentionally influenced the outcome of some of the games he officiated, he bet on them. The 2006 Tour de France champion has now been stripped of his title and is champion no more. And just last week comes word the head football coach of the National Football League's New England Patriots, Bill Belichick, was fined $500,000, and his team $250,000 more, for engaging in a form of cheating so egregious the opposing coach in the following week's game refused to let representatives of the Patriots into his team's locker room.

In a March 27 USA Today article titled "Fights OK, injuries not, Bettman says," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is quoted as saying that "(M)y view on fighting hasn't changed. We've never taken active steps or considered eliminating fighting in the game. I've always taken the view that it's part of the game, and it rises and lowers based on what the game dictates."

Perhaps that "part of the game" is in large measure part of the problem. Commissioner Bettman's statements that clearly condone fighting in his sport demonstrate not only a cavalier attitude toward violence but also a woeful and embarrassing lack of leadership. His position as NHL commissioner affords him considerable influence, with an opportunity to publicly denounce fighting in sports and violence in society. His "defeated, throwinthe-towel" approach to leadership indicates he is more of a follower than a true leader.

For some reason, I do not think Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig would condone pitchers intentionally throwing at hitters, nor would NFL commissioner Roger Goodell support intentional acts of violence that may harm other competitors and jeopardize careers. Why, then, are we expected to tolerate Commissioner Bettman's blatant acceptance of fighting in professional hockey?

Why is any of this important? Why care about ethics at all? Aren't ethics- or the lack thereof- somebody else's problem?

The problem is that unethical conduct is a learned behavior. We aren't born unethical; we learn it. At a time when Americans- especially children- are bombarded with messages of violence and look to sports for role models, greater emphasis should be placed on identifying and emulating those individuals who clearly understand the profound influence their statements and actions have on the lives of other people.

In a decadeslong career, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden thought of himself, first and foremost, as a teacher. Wooden and his Duke University colleague Mike Krzyzewski recognize the powerful effect of modeling ethical conduct, in words and actions, even when it appears as if no one is watching.

If we had more genuine role models who understand this concept, role models like John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski, and fewer individuals like Gary Bettman and Bill Belichick, perhaps our society would be better off.