Washington Redskins Rookies Forced to Foot $22,000 Steakhouse Bill for Veteran Players

It's a good thing Washington Redskin's rookie players make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, otherwise they would never be able to pay for extravagant dinner bills. Earlier this week, according to Bleacher Report, the freshmen players on the team had to pick up a $22,000 dinner tab at D.C. steakhouse Mastro's. It's part of a "rookie night" tradition where veteran players have their meal paid for by the new players on the team.

The Washington Post notes defensive rookies Preston Smith, Deshazor Everett, Kyshoen Jarrett, and Corey Crawford all chipped in for the pricey meal which included lobster tails, herb roasted chicken, steak sashimi and bone-in filet with truffle butter. Even the drink orders were spendy — they included a Macallan 25 and three sidecars made with Hennessy — except for the player who asked for two $5 Shirley Temples. All-in-all the meal was just over $17,000. Tax plus 17 percent gratuity brought the total to $22,159.04. Good thing Smith, who was responsible for paying most of the bill, signed a four-year deal worth well over four million dollars.

Smith tells the Washington Post that he was expecting the check to be worse: "I kind of had an expectation of what to expect and what I was going to see. It's kind of like my mind was at ease when I saw it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it may have been." Defensive tackle Terrance Knighton, a veteran, has no guilt over his expensive order: "Dinner was great. It feels good being able to just eat and then leave. It's quite a bill, but I've got expensive taste."

Hazing new football players with pricey meals at Mastro's is apparently something other football teams do too. In 2012, veteran Chicago Bears players pranked rookie players by giving them a bill for $38,091 from the steakhouse. However, the receipt contained three $10,000 orders of "Bears dinners," an item that does not actually exist. At the end, rookies only had to foot a $4,000 bill.