In any corporate setting, there is some sort of initiation–a right of passage, if you will–for the new guy to the company. It’s usually subtle or unspoken, but it’s always there.
In the NFL, subtlety isn’t necessary, as veterans are pretty straight forward with their demands: everyone goes out for a nice meal on the rookies’ tab. That was the deal for newbie linebackers Ryan Kerrigan and Markus White, anyway.
This morning, Doug Zaleski of Kerrigan’s hometown paper, the Muncie Star Press, wrote a piece on the linebacker and his night out with the boys:
“Usually, rookies in the NFL have to take the veterans out for dinner one time and show them a good time,” Kerrigan said. “It was a fun time for all of us.”
Kerrigan and White are both congenial guy, but picking up the steak tab for 10 hungry teammates is a tall order. That’s not to say that the two skimped on the accommodations. According to Zaleski, the pair rented a limousine and took the group to Bourbon Steak in the city.
How high did the bill run that night? Let’s just say, what is ingested among linebackers, stays among linebackers.
“I won’t get into the numbers, but it was a little more than I’ve ever spent on dinner — we’ll just say that,” Kerrigan said. “That’s just part of being a rookie. I’ll be glad to have dinner on some other rookie in the future.”
Ironically, with the way that the linebacker crew looks right now, that position won’t soon be an area of need.
