The rookie team dinner has been one of the most popular forms of hazing in the NFL for a long time, and several first-year San Francisco 49ers players had the pleasure of experiencing it this week. Though, the damage may not have been quite as shocking as it appeared.
Niners rookie defensive end Drake Jackson shared a video on social media Monday that showed a dinner tab of $322,391.05. It looked like Jackson and his fellow rookies were on the hook for a six-figure bill.
The 49ers made Rookie Drake Jackson pay the dinner bill totaling $322,391.05 pic.twitter.com/P6VGS3dl3u
— AuxGod (@AuxGod_) December 19, 2022
If you pause the video, however, you will see that there was a $200,000 gratuity and some other outrageous charges added onto the bill. Niners veteran defensive lineman Arik Armstead took to Twitter on Monday night to confirm the obvious — the majority of the tab was merely a prank. Armstead said the rookies actually split a more reasonable sum of $4,500.
Y’all silly if you thought a dinner can cost 300k . It was a prank. The waitress went overboard . The dinner was 7500 me and 2 other vets gave 1k towards it . The rooks split 4500. We had a great time too. I had good vets as a young player I would never do a rookie like that .
— Arik Armstead (@arikarmstead) December 20, 2022
“Y’all silly if you thought a dinner can cost 300k. It was a prank,” Armstead wrote. “The waitress went overboard. The dinner was 7500 me and 2 other vets gave 1k towards it. The rooks split 4500. We had a great time too. I had good vets as a young player I would never do a rookie like that.”
We have heard stories before about rookie dinners that cost far more than $4,500, so the Niners’ 2022 class probably will not complain too much.
