Even in the presence of quality mentoring, the sense of entitlement often has sterilized the soil. The possibility of change is slim, since we're talking about human nature, which has undergone only modest evolution over the past few hundred centuries. What might occur a little sooner is a change in how big-time athletes are perceived. If a distinction can be carved out in which athletes are admired for what they are instead of who they are, pressure can lessen. Maybe not by much, but the change has to begin somewhere.
Athletes are extraordinary performers, often nothing more.
They can be sports heroes, but usually not role models for life. They are often trained from childhood to do one thing well, yet American society somehow has acquired the expectation that athletes must do all things as well as the one thing. And do it at age 25 or 21 or 18. The fact that some, like Kirby Puckett or Wayne Gretzky, can manage the renaissance feat of a fullness of humanity, is a blessing. But it should not be the expectation, only the aspiration.