We see this in action in every walk of life and in sports and it is not better represented than by the Dallas Cowboys.
No NFL market gives more exposure to its NFL team than DFW, not even close. And this has been in place for a long time, well before the present ownership. This is only compounded by the national exposure enabling the owner to feed his insatiable ego and need for celebrity status.
The problem is two-fold. First, he wants to please his ego by making himself the face and voice of the team but the second one is the real achievement stopper. He allows his ego to extend to his players because he chose them, they are his and they must be better than the others just because they are his. He actually thinks every player wants to be a Cowboy but worse, thinks that's because of him.
What else explains the slow starts in playoff games? They think they've already arrived. All they have to do is show up. And this isn't just in the last one, it is in almost every one of them since Phillips took over.
The problem, and I do not see this changing until there is a GM change, is that the owner will not allow the HC to do his job. He even did it to Parcells with Owens. Parcells didn't want the #1 coach killer in the league and tried his tough love approach with "the player" only to have the owner double down and take him to breakfast every week to soothe his bruised ego. That same ego that had him on his third team because he couldn't get along with authority figures.
You can see FAS with the players. We saw that with Lawrence creating a nickname for a very mediocre DL, that's promotion. That's right down the owner's sweet spot. Promote it and sell it before it really exists.
And that's not the real problem, the real one is that he infects his players with it and does not allow the one entity that can keep that in check any real power.
The bucks start with the owner but the buck does not stop with the HC.
False Achievement Syndrome is simply they're just happy to be Cowboys.
