Well, to each his own, I suppose.
It certainly seems as though attitudes are a bit different this generation. I don't remember too many players being okay with the fact that they'd be docked 10 thousand dollars because they "felt like" wearing a certain color of shoe that make them look cooler with their uniforms. 10 thousand dollars could be a lot of things to a lot of people. The disrespect alone is a bit disgusting.
"Swag" was called being tough and playing good fundamental football.
While there were always a handful of players who gambled, drank too much, smoked, etc--I also don't remember "up to 50%" of the players doing drugs according to several different former players in the past few years. Hell, they basically announce that they'll be drug tests once in year in the middle of April, and you STILL see tons of people failing them and giving up their multi-million dollar careers. How the hell you do explain that on such a scale, as opposed to the one/two players on each team that would be the bad boys in former days?
Yes...I do believe they are a bit dumber in this generation. That's my opinion, and while you may not agree, I'm sticking to it.