A question of NFL culture. Not having grown up in the USA I've never been a part of football culture, just a fan. Maybe this sort of thing, a light hazing or induction of rookies has a place, I would think, but at the NFL level, with NFL money, there's clearly a chance for this to get blown out of all normal proportions. 50k dinners? Maybe I'm missing something but it does seem to make a mockery out the whole, "I'm just trying to feed my family thing". Most of these guys aren't going to have massive careers. A bit of financial wisdom seems like the best thing Thoughts?
The average household in the US makes around $55k a year. Note I said household- so that's two adults working 12 months for what these NFL rookies shell out in a single night on a team dinner. Upper management and highly skilled positions (doctor, lawyer, programmer, etc.) make in the range of $75-150k a year. But even then, that one dinner would be several months of wages. So no matter where you come from in the nation or what income level, its ridiculous to see this amount of money wasted. Highly successful entrepreneurs and CEO's, they might make NFL-level salaries. But even in their cases, a casual night out on the town for $50k is a rarity. It does happen some in business, like renting out a suite at a Dolphins game to host clients, but that's completely different since it's a sales and networking tool.
The important thing to remember is that they are unit dinners, not whole team dinners. So a $60k dinner is for, at most 10 or 12 people. Having worked in high end hospitality for the last 10 years, the only way you get to that level of expenditure is if they are deliberately wasting money. Ordering lobsters they don’t eat, ordering a rare A5 Kobe Beef steak, ordering drinks then leaving them on the table kind of things. Also they’re ordering drinks that they really don’t appreciate or understand, 40 year old first growth Bordeaux when they’re beer drinkers, 30 year old PB SB Mortloch Scotch Whisky* that they mix with Coke and so on. At least when rich lawyers order a $10k bottle you know they’re doing so because they know, understand and want what’s inside the bottle. I’ve heard rumors of certain places that regularly get music stars or sports personalities recycling bottles because they know those customers are only interested in showing off the price tag and not being able to identify the contents. *As an aside I think it’s a waste to buy any liquor over 20 years old because once you get to 20 or so years of barrel age all you’re really tasting is the wood. There’s negligible difference between a 30 year old cognac, whisky, tequila, bourbon, rum or whiskey. If I’m dropping a shedload of money on a bottle of whisky I want to taste the whisky.
