Food for thought

THE DINNER that launched a thousand tweets was not part of any sort of hazing, Lane Johnson said yesterday. In fact, the $17,747.86 tab he posted over the weekend for a "rookie dinner" at Del Frisco's was split among himself and fellow Eagles offensive linemen Todd Herremans and Evan Mathis, Johnson said.

"I probably should have [given] it some clarity," Johnson concluded after the Eagles finished their organized team activity session on a steamy Monday afternoon.

There are several themes one could pursue here, including conspicuous consumption/income disparity, with a group of football players racking up a dinner tab that equals at least several months' salary for some of their fans. Then there's the fact that many NFL players struggle with money problems after their careers end, Johnson's $12.8 million signing bonus notwithstanding.

But most tangibly, this is a story about social media, its uses and misuses, how what is intended isn't always what is perceived.

Johnson, the No. 4 overall selection in the 2013 draft, said yesterday his intention in footing the bulk of the dinner bill for the 16 linemen on the 90-man roster was to "keep the tradition going." The rookies on the o-line usually host such a dinner, Eagles players said. To Johnson, who said he wasn't able to arrange the dinner during his actual rookie season, the receipt was a sort of battle ribbon. (There are no drafted rookie o-linemen this year.)

"It's something they [the veterans] did, coming into the NFL. There was really no pressure on me - I didn't have to pay for the meal, it was just something I did. Usually, anytime we get a chance to go out and eat, it's always a good thing. We did it throughout the season. This time the check was a little bit more than average . . . Usually it's a couple thousand," he said.

Johnson said at weekly dinners, the o-linemen play credit-card roulette to see who picks up the tab.

As of yesterday afternoon, Johnson had 33,800 Twitter followers. The "rookie dinner" receipt had been retweeted 1,300 times and favorited 900 times. A Google search for "Lane Johnson and rookie dinner" turned up 602,000 results.

Without talking to Johnson or anyone else involved, the web site Pro Football Talk declared on Saturday: "The NFL may want to ban Richie Incognito-style bullying in locker rooms, but rookie hazing is alive and well. The latest example comes from Philadelphia."

PFT noted that Dez Bryant said earlier this month he was forced to pay a $55,000 tab as a Cowboys rookie in 2010, then the site inveighed against rookie dinners and hazing.

As the receipt meme mushroomed, Johnson clearly became upset that what he'd thought was a source of pride to share with his fans was making him an object of ridicule.

"For those of you so concerned with MY business, I am grateful to be able to treat my O-line to such a great evening VOLUNTARILY!" Johnson tweeted.

Understandable, from a plainspoken Texas guy who recently asked on Twitter if anybody knew places to bowfish around here, but ultimately unfortunate, as well. When you tweet something, you kind of make it everyone's business, as many people were happy to remind Johnson. Including teammates.

"That's something we've already talked to Lane about," said center Jason Kelce, who said the bill split among himself, Danny Watkins and Julian Vandervelde in 2011 was close to what the group racked up at Johnson's dinner. "You generally don't want to tweet that out. But bottom line, we're not trying to hide anything. He tweeted it out. It is what it is."

In case you haven't seen details of the bill elsewhere, here are a few highlights: 14 1-ounce pours of Louis XIII de Remy Martin cognac, totaling $3,150, along with five 2-ounce pours for $1,375. A bottle of Screaming Eagle cabernet for $3,495. A side of creamed corn for 10 bucks (a bargain!). Several cattle, portioned into steaks, including five 32-ounce ribeyes that totaled $445. And so on.

"The steaks there are pretty good," Johnson said. "We had some Louie there too; some of the guys enjoyed that."

"It was a team function. Nobody forced Lane to do that," Kelce said. "A lot of times, with any profession, I feel like, when you get a promotion, you get a raise, something like that, the first thing you do is you take out your family, friends, people around you that you care about. Like, I just signed a big deal [6 years, $37.5 million, $6 million signing bonus], I'm going to do something for these guys . . . obviously, there's other people that contributed to me getting the bigger deal" 3 years after arriving as a sixth-round pick from Cincinnati.

"It gets portrayed in the media, they like to act like they have a clue what's going on in our locker room, but the fact of the matter is, we have a really tight-knit group of guys. Lane was more than happy to do that," Kelce said. "Everybody that's been drafted into the [offensive line of the] Philadelphia Eagles, to my knowledge, has taken veterans out on a rookie dinner. When I was a rookie we went to Barclay Prime . . . Danny [Watkins] paid the most, because he was the highest pick, had the highest signing bonus, then me and Julian split the rest of it."

With Johnson being the highest-drafted Eagles offensive lineman in 40 years, obviously, his dinner was going to be a big deal. It wasn't clear yesterday why it never happened during training camp or the 2013 season; Kelce noted that early in the player's rookie year is generally the time frame, to accelerate bonding.

"That was the highest [bill] I've seen, but I know for a fact other teams have had higher ones," Kelce said. "It was a great meal . . . It was outstanding."

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian