A group of people think it is acceptable for professional atheletes to misbehave on or off the field, as long as they are performing well in game. However, I find it hard to agree with such behaviour, because sports people who are highly influencing the public by their game, also it will affect other players in the team.
When it comes to sportsmanship its all about professionalism to the sports and how they are behaving in public forum, because as long as whatever they are doing in private it will not affect any public who are following them but in field and public places they have to behave responsibly. When they are misbehaving in an open forum it will tremendously influence the public, because they are in celebrity status and whatever character they express may be followed by some of their fans and it will set as bad example for other sportsman in the game.
On the other hand, while playing some sportsman may do verbal abuse with sports person either in their team or in opponent team. When game is started obviously there will be the pressure to win the game and achieve the goals, during that time some team players may not perform well so the other person may anger with them and do verbal abuse, it will badly affect the opposite person and reduce their mental ability to concentrate in a game. For instance, if a cricket player not able to hit the ball and give positions to non-striker, the person will verbal abuse striker due to pressure of game it happened many times in the real cricket match. Hence such behaviour should not be acceptable in public forum.
In conclusion, people who are participating in the game publically they have to hold certain responsibilities to avoid controversies, because of their bad character it influences both public and sportsmen in the team.