Roy Williams pays back Dez Bryant

Updated: September 29, 2010, 11:36 AM ET
By Calvin Watkins | ESPNDallas.com

At some point, Dallas Cowboys rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant was going to get his comeuppance. Teammate Roy Williams all but guaranteed that during training camp.

Bryant made national news in training camp when he refused to carry Williams' pads after practice -- bucking the trend of veteran NFL players hazing rookies. Bryant later said he didn't know about such tradition.

"I'm not doing it," Bryant said then. "I feel like I was drafted to play football, not carry another player's pads."

Williams excused it, saying then that Bryant, who received $8.3 million in guaranteed money from his rookie contract, would just have to take the team out to dinner and get him some new shoes.

Well, that dinner happened Monday night. The final tab: $54,896.

Bryant took the offensive players out to Pappas Bros. Steakhouse. Williams, however, made sure Bryant got the message, inviting defensive players as well.

And guess who was left holding the bill afterward.

"They got the young fella," said Bryant's adviser, David Wells. "What could he say? He had to pay it unless he wanted to wash dishes for a month."

Players ordered basically everything on the menu and even took home bottles of wine.

After checking out the 90-page wine book, it's anybody's guess if anybody took home a bottle of Chateau Latour for $9,000. It's also possible a few players ordered a bottle of PlumpJack Reserve for $600.

No word from Bryant or Williams about the evening ... yet.

Calvin Watkins covers the Cowboys for ESPNDallas.com. You can follow him on Twitter or leave a question for his weekly mailbag.

Calvin Watkins joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. He's covered the Cowboys since 2006 and also has covered colleges, boxing and high school sports.

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