Buying off more than they can chew

Ever taken your co-workers out to dinner? How about a $55,000 one?
While it sounds unbelievable, it’s an annual staple in many professional sports, and one of the craziest and most irresponsible traditions of them all. It’s the rookie dinner.
The rookie dinner is exactly what it sounds like – a bunch of veteran players going to dinner with the team’s rookies, who are then left to handle the bill. Truthfully, it’s a ritual that’s gotten way out of control, and something that needs to be contained, or just scrapped altogether.
The Dallas Cowboys offence set a new high (or low) this week, when Dez Bryant was forced to cover a bill totaling almost $55,000. For 20 people. For dinner. Back in 1998, NFL first-rounder Bryan Leaf made headlines when the rookie dinner he financed came to $3,000. Try $3,000 per person, Bryan. The NHL is famous for them too, especially when Montreal Canadiens’ teammates Ryan O’Byrne and Tom Kostopoulos were arrested after their rookie dinner in 2008, when O’Byrne stole a woman’s wallet. From the $3000 spent in 1998 to the total of a couple weeks ago, there’s been an increase of 1700% in 12 years.
Many fans say they have no problem with these numbers, and if the athletes have the money, why not spend it. Plus, in a recession like this, these dinners only help stimulate the economy, and those restaurant workers who take away a giant tip at the end of the night.
And the athletes themselves attribute these dinners to invaluable team bonding, saying that it’s one of the best nights of the whole year. I’m sure that anyone else who’s ever taken part in a $50,000 meal would agree.
But there are thousands of professional athletes making millions of dollars every year, and while their combined spending habits may affect the economy, a few gluttonous dinners every year sure won’t.
This is less about the action itself, and more about the message the action gives off.
There’s nothing wrong with team bonding, nor team dinners, nor athletes spending money in quantities only reserved for the rich and the famous. But when they copiously overspend to the tune of $55,000, it becomes more than all of that. It becomes a bunch of overpaid and immature men who have far more money then ways to spend it. They spend their evening flushing that money – their fans’ money – down the toilet.
As much as some of them may not like it, athletes have a responsibility to the fan, the sport, and themselves, and themselves is the only thing they’re off the hook for. Many of their fans make close to $55,000 as a yearly salary, and to drop that on one meal is a disrespect to the people that help pay those salaries. And it doesn’t look good on any organization, sports or not, for employees who have sudden wealth and media attention, to publicly flaunt their wealth.
There’s nothing wrong with a team dinner. And there’s nothing wrong with the rookies paying, nor bonding with their veterans. But a $55,000 steak dinner? That’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

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