I think Dez Bryant’s refusal to carry Roy Williams’ pads earlier this week was ridiculous. I also think it was just a matter of time before something like that happened.

In case you missed the story, new Dallas Cowboy wide receiver (and former Oklahoma State troublemaker) Dez Bryant refused to participate in a long-standing NFL training camp tradition. When Williams tried to get Bryant to tote his pads back into the locker room following the Cowboys’ first workout of the season, Bryant refused. He later said he’d come to the team to play football and not to carry pads.

Everyone knows Bryant came to the NFL to play football. I don’t think he really had to explain that to anyone. He also probably shouldn’t have had to tell anyone he hadn’t come to the NFL to alienate his teammates, but, after his actions perhaps that’s exactly what he’s going to have to do now. Carrying pads of the veteran players in a right of passage for rookies, kind of like singing your school’s fight song or paying for meals. It’s something everyone does and it has not been much of a big deal, up until now.

Bryant, I’m afraid is at the vanguard of a group of athletes who are coming our way who think they are special long before anyone else does (or should). Bryant is a rookie who has never played one down in the NFL who thinks he is somehow above the game and his fellow players.

And in the world of professional sports he is hardly alone. LeBron James’ name immediately springs to mind when I think of guys who have been anointed by the media before they ever deserved the accolades. In James’ case we were all told he was the best basketball player on the planet before he’d even graduated from high school. Now, seven years (and no championships) later he is surrounding himself with other superstars in an effort to prove just how good he is. I believe I said a couple weeks back that I’m sure this will work and again, I’m guessing it will, but it makes me wonder just how good James was in the first place if he has to go to such lengths to win a title.

For his part, Bryant is a wide receiver and, for some reason, diva wide receivers have kind of become the norm in the NFL. There will probably be consequences for what he did, although I doubt we will ever hear about them. The veteran players usually get their way in these situations. But, for whatever, reason, this does not ever seem to make this kind of behavior go away for good. It curtails it for a time, but then the next guy who thinks he’s God’s gift to his chosen sport comes along and the whole cycle starts again.

Later in the week Bryant tried to make it all better. He explained he had no idea carrying pads was a rookie tradition and said he would have carried all of Williams’ equipment if he had known it was. This all seems like too little too late to me. Either that, or they are the words of a guy who wants to escape training camp without getting duct-taped to a goalpost.