July 5, 2026
The coddling of superstars – one of my many pet peeves – came into clearer focus last week when ex-New York Met star Eric Chavez slammed the organization for its double standard. Chavez reported seeing an assistant GM sitting in the clubhouse with Juan Soto during a game, gently trying to get the petulant star to join his teammates in the dugout.
When Chavez confronted GM David Stearns about the double standard on the roster between the superstars and the younger players, the GM replied: “Well, those (younger) players need to learn they’re not Juan Soto.”
I was shocked by the honesty of the answer. Usually, enablers like Stearns like to pretend they treat everyone the same way. For the boss of a team to say, basically, that he had no power to demand that his players follow the rules is remarkable, and incredibly wrong-headed.
But the preferential treatment is nothing new, really. Showoffs like Soto have been calling all the shots for decades now, even while pocketing insane contracts like his historic $765-million deal. It makes you wonder how much more a team would have to pay Soto to get him to sit with his teammates during games, or – gasp! – run hard to first base once in a while. Clearly, three-quarters of a billion dollars is not enough.
With this coddling issue back in the news, I thought it would be fun picking the five most-coddled superstars of the past generation. I apologize for leaving out some highly-deserving prima donnas. These are just the five that disgust me the most.
Serena Williams
Last week, the greatest woman tennis player in history graced us with her presence us once more, offering a curtain call when none was demanded or expected. Of course, she lost. She’s 44 now, playing athletes half her age. Coming out of retirement was a terrible idea – but no media person would ever say so because Serena has enjoyed kid-glove treatment for most of her career. Why stop now?
Serena was, is and will always be a brat. Go ahead and Google her on-court tantrums at the US Open in 2009 and 2018. Watch her tell the umpire she was going to shove the tennis ball down her throat. Listen to her pontificate about her exalted place in history. It’s safe to say sportsmanship and humility have never been her strong suits.
The media has called her on none of these antics – or at least they didn’t dwell on her entitled behavior the way they have with so many lesser names. These media buffoons keep topping themselves with breathless superlatives that are well past their expiration date.
After the loss, something happened that shocked the media. Serena didn’t show up for the mandated news conference. Oh, no. Now she was going to have to pay a $50,000 fine. There must be some logical explanation for her unfortunate absence.
There was. She said she had tweaked her knee and was physically unable to attend the media gathering. Later she pulled out of the doubles competition, even though she exhibited no sign of any physical distress during the singles match. There was no penalty for blowing off the media. Of course not. You wouldn’t want to offend the greatest woman player ever, would you?
If Serena had won, would she have been there to absorb, on that tweaked knee, the gushing adulation of her chroniclers?
Ha, ha. Do you really have to ask?
Aaron Rodgers
The most amazing thing about his career is not the mountain of records he has broken or the championship he won eons ago in Green Bay. No, it’s the fact that, at least half a decade after he has declined to, at best, a middling NFL quarterback, he still has bamboozled his employers and the media into dropping to their knees and kissing his arrogant ass.
Hell, the Steelers pretty much put on hold, for the second straight offseason, their planning until Rodgers got around to deciding whether he would play another season at the cranky old age of 42. Finally, on May 20, Rodgers said he would return for one last season, but only because he would be playing for the coach he won the Super Bowl with in 2011.
“When the decision was made to hire Mike (McCarthy),” he said, “I started opening my mind back up to coming back.”
Aaron Rodgers opening up his mind? Well, that’s a first. Do you remember all of the nonsense the quarterback dispensed during the COVID pandemic? I do. That’s really when I started hating the guy.
If the Steelers knew hiring McCarthy would bring Rodgers back for a 22nd season, they would have been smart to save themselves Rodgers’ $25-million salary by picking a different coach. I know a majority of Pittsburgh fans wish they had. The suffering Steeler zealots have had enough of Rodgers’ smug attitude and his woefully eroding skills.
Who’s going to tell Aaron Rodgers he is a superstar only in his own mind now?
Anybody?
LeBron James
There’s a reason “I’m taking my talents to Miami” is a line that has clung to one of the greatest NBA players ever for the past 16 years. With those words, LeBron captured the self-glorification of a player who has rarely heard a discouraging word, despite his undeniably depleted skills.
You may already notice from this list that I’m talking about the best performers in their sports. There’s reason for that. Nowadays, when a big name is a brand, these transcendent stars invariably receive the least push-back when they do something obnoxious. No one defines this brand awareness more than LeBron.
I’m not saying James got away clean when he held that embarrassing TV special on ESPN to announce his decision to sign with the Heat in 2010; back then there was a semblance of media objectivity about superstars. He got what he deserved for that nauseating display of self-love. That would never happen today.
Here’s the truth about the last big chunk of LeBron James’ career: Over eight seasons, he won one championship in LA. The price tag, his salary over that span, was an ungodly $347.5 million. Over that same period, Stephen Curry won three NBA titles in Golden State. Meanwhile, James bullied the Lakers into drafting and promoting his son Bronny, who stinks. To this day, LeBron owns records for points, rebounds and flopping.
No one has landed a glove on James in years; he’s too big for that now. But at 41, he is more a stat-hanger than a winner. He hasn’t made it back to the NBA Finals since 2020, and he failed to qualify for the conference finals the last three seasons.
In other words, he’s not nearly the player he once was, despite the still-formidable numbers.
And now supposedly the Sixers want to add him to their already dysfunctional roster?
Say it ain’t so. Please.
Shohei Ohtani
Like LeBron, Shohei is one of the greatest players ever to play his sport. And he comes from a culture that values humility and honor more than ours. Yet, still, somehow, he has become a spoiled brat. Just ask his rookie catcher, Dalton Rushing, who felt the superstar’s wrath last week when they crossed signals on a pitch that led to a passed ball and a run. For the rest of the game, Ohtani insisted on calling his own pitches. Even worse, the humiliated kid felt an obligation after the game to publicly apologize for the miscommunication.
“Never in a million years could you feel like a player like that is in the wrong,” he said. “So it’s kind of up to me, as a young guy, to wear the situation, wear it on my chest, get over it, move past it, and make sure you allow a guy like that to do what he wants to do.”
Oh, no fears there. Ohtani always does what he wants to do. Who’s going to stop him? For example, there was the time a young Australian fan wanted to get a home-run ball that Othani had hit autographed for her brother. She waited in a VIP box for him the next day, explained how big a deal it would be for her brother, and got not even a side-glance in return. She said she is no longer a fan because he’s not the humble star he pretends to be.
Meanwhile, does anyone really think MLB conducted an honest and thorough investigation into the gambling scandal two years ago involving him and his interpreter? In the end, Ohtani supposedly got scammed out of $17 million. The interpreter was addicted to gambling and squandered all of that money on sports betting, though (supposedly) not baseball. He is currently serving 57 months in a federal prison.
MLB said it did an exhausting probe into Ohtani’s involvement. Gambling is the reddest of red flags in professional sports, especially now that sports betting is legal in many states. In the end, the two-way star was cleared of any involvement in the betting.
OK, maybe. But then you also have to believe that the ultimate money hound, commissioner Rob Manfred, would ever have suspended or banned the biggest attraction in MLB if the probe uncovered anything. Shohei could have been fielding bets on Manfred’s cellphone, and I doubt the commish would have said or done anything.
Tiger Woods
A decade after his career hit the wall, the sound of his name still demands that golf fans immediately bow their heads. It has never mattered that no athlete, in any sport, ever acted with more a sense of entitlement, showed more disdain toward the fans, or acted more recklessly than this overindulged ingrate.
Where do I start? When he was a great player, he was the most fan-unfriendly star on the tour. If a patron so much as sneezed in the gallery, he or she could expect a withering look, or worse, from the tempestuous superstar. Want an autograph? Check EBay. Maybe he could offer a kind word or two to an ailing fan? Good luck with that, too.
Beyond his many public missteps, of course, are all of the outrageous driving incidents, including two DUIs and two crashes that nearly cost him (and others) their lives. He just got out of rehab, so we can expect soon another deluge of stories about how he has finally found the path back to greatness. He has not, I can assure you. Still, I’m positive his adoring media will cover the quest with religious zeal, interpreting the tiniest wins as a sign of total vindication.
Tiger Woods – most likely the greatest golfer of all time – is also an obnoxious louse. Always was, always will be. He needs to follow none of the rules of a civilized society because he is better than everybody else, at least in his own mind. Hey, this is just me, but when you have all of the advantages in life that Tiger has had and you still end up on the side of the road, dazed and confused, the vehicle you were just driving drunk a wreck, shame on you. A dose of humility might have saved his legacy, if not himself.
Instead, he has embraced the coddling. He has accepted all of the plaudits, expecting none of the backlash.
He and the others on this list are the Entitled Five.
Root for them as much as you like.
I have found it’s easier if you also hold your nose.