It is no secret Cowboys rookies Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott are setting themselves up for some serious paydays in the future, and apparently the team’s veterans took notice.
Dallas is off this week, which means it is time for the team’s “rookie dinner,” where the whole team goes out to dinner and the new guys are there to foot the bill. The damage this time around clocked in at a whopping $54,494.59, based off of a picture of the bill posted by defensive end Tyrone Crawford.
.@TCrawford98 Monday night 'Rookie/Team Dinner' bill, I presume? 🙂 https://t.co/2gDWXyO6Yp pic.twitter.com/0XHMgVHurT
— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) October 19, 2016
The story surrounding this dinner is one of team bonding and unity, which is great news for fans and the team alike. But that does not mean this sort of rookie punishment is any less unsettling. It may be branded as a lighthearted right of passage, but the practice is a little more disconcerting upon closer inspection. Forcing the guys who, for the most part, are making the least money on the team to fund everyone else sounds great if you’re a veteran (and those who had to do it as rookies), but it puts a real dent in the limited earning power of most of these guys. Sure, Prescott and Elliott will be fine, but they are the exception.
The average NFL career lasts just 3.3 years now, which means that most of these guys will not make this expenditure back on the other side of their careers. Once their rookie deal is up, most are out of a steady job. Only those lucky few who buck the average are seeing a return on this rookie investment when they become the veteran players benefitting from this sort of arrangement.
It may be tough for some to feel sympathy for rich professional athletes, but this sort of practice would raise eyebrows in virtually any other profession. Dez Bryant contradicted some earlier quotes from his teammates, saying the dinner was mostly a pay-for-yourself affair, which might explain the lack of resentment from the rookies and the universal goodwill coming out of the dinner.
The Cowboys still have a looming quarterback controversy, but if these dinner reports are to be believed, it sounds like the locker room is unified behind whoever is under center in Week 8 and beyond.
