Looking for loyalty? Don't go looking in the sports world.

You won't find too much.

This isn't just about football coach Lane Kiffin's decision to leave Tennessee after one year to take the USC job, or Pete Carroll bolting the Trojans to return to the NFL, or Nick Saban leaving LSU, then the Miami Dolphins, to return to the collegiate ranks with Alabama, or Bobby Petrino slipping out of Atlanta after less than a year with the Falcons to go back to college football — you get the picture.

Take any professional athlete who holds out for a contract renegotiation when he is still under contract — there are plenty to choose from.

High school coaches are fired too soon, college coaches leave their teams before significant bowl games (e.g. Brian Kelly at Cincinnati) to take other jobs — it seems this stuff never stops.

Go back to 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were assaulting baseball's home run record and fans were packing stadiums early just to watch them take batting practice.

A little more than a decade later, McGwire, Sosa and other sluggers from that era are being kept out of the Baseball Hall of Fame because they "cheated."

Nobody seemed to mind when they "cheated" back then.

Jose Canseco is being treated as a hero because he outed all of these steroid users. He was one of the guys who brought steroids into baseball, got teammates to try them, then ratted them all out in a book so he could make a buck.

That's a hero? That's loyalty?

Jim Zorn took over as coach of the Washington Redskins after initially being hired as a coordinator by the team. Just a few games into the season, Zorn had play-calling authority stripped from him and was fired less than 24 hours after the Redskins' last game.

Jim Mora Jr. lasted all of one season in Seattle before the Seahawks' ownership wanted a "name" to take over. Enter Pete Carroll, who exited USC for dollar figures that he simply couldn't turn down.

One guy who never wanted to leave the Pirates, despite toiling with a decade of losing with the team, was Jack Wilson. He never stopped playing hard and was a fan favorite at PNC Park for years.

Not only is Wilson traded, but he's dealt while the Pirates were on a road trip. He never had a chance to experience the farewell in Pittsburgh he truly deserved.

Athletes rarely get to bow out the way they'd like. Ask Johnny Unitas, Franco Harris, Joe Montana, Mike Webster or Brett Favre about that — if Favre ever decides to bow out.

Loyalty doesn't exist within the athlete, the coach or management in sports anymore. Multiyear contracts involving anybody mean virtually nothing these days.

Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell were Pirates forever. Terry Bradshaw, Jack Lambert and Joe Greene wouldn't have dreamed of playing anywhere else. Mario Lemieux saved the Penguins as a player and as an owner.

But for every story like those, there are 10 or more on the other side.

Sad, isn't it?

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle.