How much do NFL rookie dinners cost and should they be allowed?
Since the 1970s, NFL players have encountered the “rookie dinner” tradition, when novice players must take the veterans out for a stylish and pricey dinner.
There are many initiation rituals for first-year athletes on the professional sports scene. Undoubtedly, one of the heftiest on a rookie’s bank account has to be the NFL’s “rookie dinner.”
The tradition of these dinners goes back half a century ago and is a team’s group meal paid for by this year’s novices. At these feasts—which can average $5,000 to $25,000 at some restaurants—players pamper in fine wines and spirits, steaks, seafood, and other expensive treats. The most pricey rookie dinner may have been a 2010 feast at a Texas steakhouse that cost $55,000, and the player who found himself on the paying end of the bill was Dez Bryant.
The coaches and the players see this tradition as an integral part of the players’ group initiation process.
The harsh reality
Some claim that the rookie dinner could be the first step toward overspending and later falling into bankruptcy of many young and financially illiterate players. Players in the NFL make less than many professional male athletes in other sports, and a 2015 study found that 15 percent of players had reported bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring.
That’s why many current and former players are hoping that tradition will end.
“This dinner sets a precedent for a lifestyle that the majority of players cannot afford to do and shouldn’t be living anyway,” retired player Torrey Smith said to N.Y. Times.
Others immediately defend the practice, resembling it to the “benign” hazing that college fraternity fellows go through. Channing Crowder, a former linebacker for the Miami Dolphins, supported the tradition, saying it is a “part of the game.”
“If I have to spend $30,000 on a dinner for my O.G.s… all the guys I watched growing up,” Crowder said. “It wasn’t that big of a deal,” even with this price tag.
The rookie dinners will stay as a part of the NFL’s culture. But as more current and retired players work to underscore the significance of monetary literacy and keeping money for retirement, maybe the future holds fewer lavish visits to high-class dinners or at least the final bill being sorted out by more financially established members of the team.