Dez Bryant Stuck With $55k Dinner Bill
Not so much of an SMH as it is a LOL. The Dallas Cowboys got their payback with rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant in the form of a $54,896 dinner bill.
Back in July, the rookie made noise in the league when he refused to carry the shoulder pads of veteran wideout Roy Williams. It was an innocent ritual of hazing that, for some reason, Bryant felt he was above. For decades, NFL rookies have been hazed, but Bryant offered an explanation to ESPN as to why he wouldn’t participate.
“I’m not doing it,” said Bryant. “I feel like I was drafted to play football, not carry another player’s pads. If I was a free agent, it would still be the same thing. I just feel like I’m here to play football. I’m here to try to help win a championship, not carry someone’s pads. I’m saying that out of no disrespect to [anyone].”
But at some point, Bryant had to know that the Cowboys would get theirs. Williams excused it and stated that the rookie with the $8.3 million in guaranteed money would just have to take his team out to dinner. Bryant, clearly having no idea what was about to take place, agreed to take his team to dinner on Monday evening after their big win against the Houston Texans.
So here was Bryant with a hungry offensive unit at Pappa Bros. Steakhouse. Dinner at the Dallas restaurant isn’t cheap (here’s the dinner menu and wine list), but a player with $8 million in his bank account should have no trouble footing the bill. But when Williams also invited the Cowboys defensive unit, Bryant had to know that his day was coming. However, he couldn’t have been aware of the bill he would have to pay. After the team ordered just about everything off of the menu, and once their bellies were full, Bryant was stuck with a $54,896 bill.
Now, as we mentioned, dinner is expensive. But how does one run up a bill of $55k? Easily. When you have a bottle of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild listed at $15k, one would have to assume that players ordered a few expensive bottles to take home.
Is it a waste of food? Maybe. But if the bulk of the bill consisted of those ridiculously priced wine bottles, we can see where the money went. We’ll assume that the team didn’t just order food to throw in the trash.
Either way, we bet that Bryant wishes he would have just carried those pads.
