Last month, TMZ reported that Vikings left tackle Bryant McKinnie racked up a $100,000 bar tab during an event held in conjunction with the NBA’s All-Star weekend.
Nearly two weeks after the fact, the large man who plays left tackle has denied that he dropped 100 large.
McKinnie tells Jeremy Fowler of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the story was “exaggerated a lot.”
Specifically, McKinnie claims he was at a concert in L.A., and rapper Rick Ross gave McKinnie what the kids call a shout-out from the stage. Ross then said something about spending "$100,000 on bottles in the club.”
“All of a sudden that became my tab somehow,” McKinnie said. “Like seriously, at the time I was laughing thinking it was in good fun until people started talking about it and took it a little too far.”
That’s fine, but why did it take so long for McKinnie to speak up? Given that the news bolstered the notion that the players won’t have the money to survive a lockout, the union should have immediately launched an effort to get the truth out.
Or, at a minimum, McKinnie’s version of it.
The TMZ report cited sources who said more than 15 bottles of pricey champagne were purchased, including bottles of bubbly so large that the entire club stopped and watched as the wait staff brought the bottles to McKinnie’s area. So there’s a good chance that McKinnie’s version isn’t the truth.