Nineteen-year-old goaltender Travis Fullerton is back home in Canada, sent home by the Maineiacs following his arrest Sunday on a charge of operating under the influence.

He is, without question, innocent until proven guilty.

However, the Maineiacs management does not tolerate what it perceives as behavior harmful to the team and released the backup goalie, a goalie who is ranked ninth overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Thirty-year-old Floyd Landis is back home in California, fired by Phonak, his Swiss cycling team, after his positive test for higher-than-permitted levels of testosterone during the Tour de France last month.

Landis, who wore the yellow jersey into Paris and was declared the official winner of the race, has asserted his innocence. Although he has legal avenues open to him to refute the charges, Phonak management fired him and has been openly critical of what it perceives as behavior harmful to the team.

The harm to the team has been so extreme, Phonak – still stinging after firing riders Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Camenzind and Santi Perez in 2004 for doping – has disbanded.

In referring to Fullerton, Maineiacs head coach Clem Jodoin said his behavior “is not something this team will tolerate.”

In referring to Landis, Phonak team owner Andy Rihs told ESPN he is deeply disappointed in the cyclist’s behavior, which led to the team’s decision to disband. “I guess I will have a lot of time on my hands now to swallow this bitter pill,” Rihs said.

In the anything-goes environment of professional sports, these decisions to release athletes for internal ethics violations is profound.

Jeff Benedict has written a couple of books on the subject of professional athletes being given too great a leeway in chronically bad behavior.

His book, “Out of Bounds: Inside the NBA’s Culture of Rape, Violence, & Crime,” went further, suggesting the NBA fosters criminal behavior.

Benedict has been equally hard on the NFL, and there’s no end to the buzz of doping and cheating in Major League Baseball. Makes one wonder if any professional sports remain clean or if cheating is now required to win.

That’s certainly not the role model image we fancy for professional athletes, but it’s becoming increasing clear that decades of winking at cheats and criminals has emboldened them.

Teams aren’t teams without players, so it takes strength to dump players – especially the stars – to protect the reputation of the team. If leagues can’t or won’t do that, individual teams must.

The Maineiacs and Phonak did that, proof there is desire for clean, ethical professional competition.