Entitlement an epidemic in sports

[joeybee12]

It's Gilbert Arenas and his guns. It's Ben Roethlisberger and his social life. It's Tiger Woods and his extramarital activities.

It's the story of a whole new generation of athletes and the heady sense of entitlement that has been instilled in some of them since childhood. Blame it on the athlete and his or her parents and coaches, blame it on our national addiction to sports, blame it on the sports media, blame it on the sponsors, blame it on the sports fan, but one thing is certain: It's not going away.

In fact, it will probably only get worse unless the threat of serious consequences finally scares the daylights out of some of these knuckleheads. That, or fear of the cellphone camera.

Woods, whose father had him hitting golf shots on national TV at 2 and later proclaimed that his son was going to be the next Gandhi or Mandela, was speaking not only for himself, but, perhaps unwittingly, for some of his misbehaving millionaire peers as well when he said in February that he felt he was "entitled" to do the things he did.

"I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply," he said. "I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2010-03-31-entitlement-epidemic_N.htm