It is NFL tradition for rookies to pay for the team dinner during the season’s Rookie Night of the bye week, but DE first-year Shea McClellin, who grew up on a farm off Chicken Dinner road, was not expecting the Chicago Bears to rack up a $38,000 tab.
Lucky for McClellin, the $38,000 check was a fake planted by team veterans.
“I saw it, and I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to pay for this.’ I don’t think my debit card can go that high,” McClellin said.
The total price of the dinner, which was held at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Chicago, was about a third of the fraud check. Israel Idonije tweeted a picture of the bill with the hashtag #RookieNight.
While McClellin’s bill was only a prank, other rookies were not so fortunate. In 2010, the Dallas Cowboys stiffed rookie Dez Bryant with a $54,000 bill for refusing to carry veteran Roy Willams’ pads after practice.
