Freedom of speech plus global circulation of visual and audio recordings via social and corporate mediums equals Trouble with a capital T for individuals in sport with a tendency to run off at the mouth or be trigger happy with a smartphone.
Terms like ''off the record'', ''for your eyes only'' and ''private'' are a thing of the past if you possess some kind of recording device that also acts as a disseminating tool.
Just ask Aaron Smith, Konrad Hurrell and Donald Sterling how they're dealing with the blurring of boundaries between their public and private lives.
On another level, what these lapses in political correctness suggest is an institution where racism and sexism are still present.
Hurrell, in his public statement, for instance, was sorry that he embarrassed the Warriors, his team-mates, club members and family but made no such apology to Teuila Blakely for sharing the intimate act they were engaged in on a social networking site.
Whether he intended for it to be made public or not is irrelevant. It went public, and the consequences not only impact on him and his rugby league fraternity but also on her life.
An apology for impacting on her life would have shown an awareness of the greater impact his act of ''sharing'' their act with the world had on her and women/girls in general.
Although Hurrell has been fined and humiliated in the process, the damage to the image of rugby league regarding respect and appreciation for women has been tarnished even more.
It doesn't help rugby league any more when players such as Mitchell Moses and Matt Lodge continue to use homophobic and sexist slurs verbally and in writing to motivate themselves and to psychologically torment their opponents.
Really? Is the ''C'' word so powerful as an insult that it is used by fully-grown men to gain the upper hand?
Is there no greater insult than a derogatory term for a female body part?
Well, in the United States, the ''N'' or ''B'' word is even more powerful, and no-one - not even a British star of a TV car show or an 80-year-old NBA owner - can use it in jest or in the heat of the moment.
V. Stiviano, who recorded Los Angeles Clippers owner Sterling's racist rant (but claims she didn't leak it), has since come to the defence of her ageing friend, suggesting he isn't racist in his actions because he is a very generous and kind man and that his comments should be considered as reflecting his generation.
Well, many owners of slaves were known to be generous and kind, but they still supported slavery.
And we are all a product of our generation, but that doesn't necessarily excuse our actions and comments.
Not all white people brought up during the apartheid era supported the stance on race relations in South Africa, and although many individuals of that generation continue to reflect racist attitudes and behaviours, it doesn't make it right.
Racism and sexism in sport need to be stamped out at multiple levels.
Sterling is not the only racist in the NBA, and players such as Moses, Lodge and Hurrell are not the only players in need of enlightenment with regards to the impact of their words and actions on women.
At the institutional level, stamping out these `isms will take time but it needs to occur at all levels from owners right through to players.
What the past two weeks has demonstrated to us is that no-one is immune from being reprimanded, fined or banned.
