No, 49ers rookies didn't have to pay a $300k dinner bill

Ah, the rookie dinner. It's one of the most standard forms of hazing in the NFL.

For the uninitiated: The rookie dinner is basically a meal where veterans buy expensive menu items and ask the first-year player or players to foot the bill. New York Jets rookie wideout Garrett Wilson learned about the ritual this summer on "The Pivot Podcast" and the The New York Times dissected the controversy surrounding it in September.

But this time it appeared as though one group of veterans went too far when San Francisco 49ers defensive end Drake Jackson posted a video on Instagram that included a bill for $322,391. That's a lot of money, even for a professional athlete. It's especially a lot of money when Jackson, a second-rounder from the 2022 draft, will make $705,000 pre-tax this year.

Fear not for Jackson. Niners defensive lineman Arik Armstead later debunked the video and admitted the $300k-plus tab was a prank the veterans played on the rookies. Armstead added that the final total ended up being $4,500 split between the rookies and he "would never do a rookie like that."

The idea of the rookie dinner is something mostly either begrudgingly accepted as an NFL norm or admonished for its callousness.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark bluntly told Wilson on "The Pivot Podcast" that the dinner is "not going to be cool." And former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor added to Wilson that "you know they going to run that bill up, like $75,000?" The third host, former NFL linebacker Channing Crowder, later joked that "[Wilson] thinks it's his decision" about paying for the meal.

Former wide receiver Torrey Smith is an unabashed opponent of the rookie dinner hazing ritual. He tweeted in June that "Rookie dinners are BS! ... Dudes come into the league with no financial literacy and real problems but folks think 50k dinners are cool! Nah!" Smith later told the Times that the dinner "sets a precedent for a lifestyle that the majority of players cannot afford to do and shouldn’t be living anyway."

In all likelihood, the rookie dinner won't go away. Maybe instead of outlandish bills, more teams will go the route of the 49ers and simply prank their rookies before handing over a slightly less-expensive one.