The rookie meal is one of the NFL’s time-honored traditions, but Titans linebacker D’Andre Walker was not prepared for what his teammates consumed Monday night.
This Titans rookie got stuck with a $10,000 dinner bill by his teammates
SO MUCH STEAK!
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
The Titans went to the legendary Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse in Nashville and unleashed, ordering over $10,000 in food and drink, including $225 pours of cognac and indulgent helpings of some of the most expensive beef in the world.
When it was all said and done, Walker was on the hook for $10,487.27 before tip. Assuming he tipped 18 percent, the bill would have come out to $12,369.58. That might not sound like a lot of money for an NFL player, but Walker isn’t some multimillion-dollar athlete. He was taken in the fifth round and is now on injured reserve. The meal represented 2.7 percent of his total salary.
You can see how this matches up against a range of normal-person salaries below.
Average Joe meal calculator
Salary | Meal cost |
|---|---|
| $25,000 | $675 |
| $35,000 | $945 |
| $45,000 | $1,215 |
| $55,000 | $1,485 |
| $65,000 | $1,755 |
| $75,000 | $2,025 |
| $85,000 | $2,295 |
| $95,000 | $2,565 |
Now look, I know 2.7 percent might not mean as much to someone with any amount of disposable income compared to someone living paycheck-to-paycheck, but this is still a staggering chunk to spend on one meal. Beyond the fact that his teammates stuck him with the bill, let’s look at how they spent all that money:
- Someone ordered 40 OUNCES of Takamori wagyu, one of the most expensive cuts of beef in the world. Total cost: $1,000
- As a table they ordered 4.5 ounces of Remy Louis XIII cognac. Total cost: $1,014
- A bottle of 2016 Opus One, regarded as one of the best years for the wine. Total cost: $650
Biggest surprise
These are big football lads with big football appetites. While I appreciate the sheer gluttony of ordering monstrous portions of wagyu, personally, I would have ordered “The Hatchet,” a 30-oz tomahawk ribeye aged for 65 days. That’s a little on the funkier side, and I get that a lot of dry aging is an acquired taste — but honestly, I think this would have been more satisfying than eating so much wagyu it ruins the beef’s mystique.
Smartest buy
The wild mushroom gnocchi. Might seem like sacrilege at a high-end steakhouse, but well-made gnocchi is divine. This is a dish that is carried by a good chef because there’s nowhere to hide in its simplicity. Cooking a steak perfectly just requires practice and a good product. A multi-ingredient dish like this needs finesse.
The moral of this story
Tradition is important, but so is assertiveness. I would have mercilessly mocked whomever ordered 40 ounces of wagyu for being so gauche. But no matter how upset you get at dropping a chunk of your yearly paycheck on a meal, at least your dog is always there for you.
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