In the months following 9/11, many Americans were reluctant to immerse themselves in professional and college sports as they had in the past. When Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig resumed play late that month, it often felt as though we were reverting to our most trivial impulses of athlete idol worship.Today's pro athlete, as we all know, is often pampered and conceited, incredibly detached from reality. Long gone are the days when pro ballplayers didn't hesitate to pack up their gear and head overseas to protect their country. During World War II, for instance, more than 1,000 major league players, including the likes of Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio and Hank Greenberg (all of Hall of Famers), spent time in combat.

One can only imagine the stir that would be created if a marquee athlete like Michael Jordan, Alex Rodriguez or women's golf sensation Annika Sorenstam announced his / her intentions of joining the Coalition effort in Iraq.

While our affection for sports events such as the NCAA Tournament can often border on childish insanity, athletics remain one of this country's most sacred bastions of national unity.

There's no feeling quite like the one that spreads through a sold-out baseball stadium on Opening Day during the playing of the national anthem.

A disturbing trend, however, has come to challenge the ideal of separation of game and state. When Toni Smith, a women's basketball player at Division III Manhattanville College (Purchase, N.Y.), turned her back on the American flag during the playing of the anthem during a game in late February, a line had been crossed.

Smith, a senior captain who states in her Manhattanville player bio, "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber," faced the inevitable repercussions of her action.

On Feb. 23, during a game in which Manhattanville hosted Stevens Tech (Hoboken, N.J.), Smith was confronted on the court by a Vietnam veteran carrying a large American flag.

Asked how he would respond to such behavior, Gino Auriemma, head coach of the top-ranked University of Connecticut Lady Huskies basketball team, said he would allow Smith to protest the war in Iraq, but throw her off the team if the Sociology major refused to salute the flag.

Mitch Albom, an award-winning columnist for the Detroit Free Press (and best-selling author of "Tuesdays with Morrie"), recently discussed the implicit boundary between political preference and athletic responsibility.

"It's wrong not in principle, but in place," Albom said, "It's wrong not in sensibility, but in sensitivity. It's wrong because a college basketball game is not a political arena, nor a stage for protest."

"But by doing what Smith does, Smith makes it so," Albom added, "And that, she doesn't have the right to do. If Smith doesn't wish to stand for the flag, she can sit -- away from the court. She can wait until after the anthem to come out of the locker room"

"She can take any number of personal paths," Albom remarked, "But to turn her rear end to the Stars and Stripes -- in front of her teammates, her opponents (who include the D-III Merchant Marine Academy) and the fans who watch her games -- is taking a stage and commandeering it for her own. It hogs the moment, a moment she only has because she is on a school team."

While Smith's antics enjoyed a substantial degree of aftershock in a highly-sensitive wartime media environment, two equally noteworthy events produced hardly a ripple.

Before a March 20 NHL contest between the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadians, our northern neighbors booed the U.S. national anthem. During NBA All-Star weekend in Atlanta, Dallas Mavericks guard Steve Nash wore a tee shirt over his jersey that read, "No War. Shoot for Peace." Perennial All-Star David "The Admiral" Robinson, an esteemed graduate of the Naval Academy, was clearly bothered by Nash's stance.

"If they're not proud of the war with Iraq," Robinson remarked, "then they probably ought to think about being in another place." It's tough to blame Robinson, who sacrificed four years of his life and to this day remains enlisted in the naval reserves, for lashing out at athletes like Nash who lived charmed lives that most Americans can only dream about.

The tactless manner in which athletes like Nash and Toni Smith display their displeasure with the country they call home is eerily similar to the way Hollywood's elite treat award shows designed to honor their acting skills, not their political orientation. While over half of the players in the NBA spent three years or less in college, that's often far more education than is received by film stars with just as much clout.

"After the war with Iraq," wrote former presidential candidate Bob Dole in a March 28 Wall Street Journal editorial, "the Hollywood celebrity critics can work on their high school GEDs."

As our favorite New England residents, the Boston Red Sox, make their way north to christen another season at Fenway, Brandeis athletes must continue competing with a business-as-usual attitude.

Current events, however, aren't far from the minds of these athletes. "It's pretty scary that there are kids my age fighting for our country," softball player Melissa Leber '04 said, "It puts things that I thought were upsetting into perspective."

Leber remarks that she has to deposit most of the images of the war in Iraq in the back of her mind when game time arrives. "I try not to watch as much war coverage as I did at first," she said, "Though I must admit that I'm always interested to hear updates and anything new that happens, especially since I have friends in the military that I know have been called to duty. But the war has not affected me mentally going into a game because while I'm aware of what is happening, it fortunately has no direct impact on my daily schedule."

Baseball player Andrew Kahn '03 shares a similar perspective. "When I'm playing," Kahn said, "my mind is on winning the game for my teammates, for myself, for my parents and for my school. If I didn't concentrate on playing to the best of my ability, I would be letting down all of those people. After I'm done with a game, however, I'd be letting down my country if I didn't show concern for our soldiers."

"I try to take an interest in the war with Iraq by debating, reading and watching the news," Kahn added, "with the same pride, integrity, intensity and dedication that I bring to every baseball game."

Leber's view of the Toni Smith saga seems to echo the sentiments of UConn's Auriemma. "If she were my teammate," she said, "I'd have mixed feelings. While she has a right to disagree with the war and its purpose, I personally feel as though the flag doesn't just represent the government. It represents her teammates, her family, her fellow citizens and especially the troops who are fighting for our country and ensuring her right to play basketball. At the very least, she should stand in support of those who are fighting for us.