Throughout the season, the New England Patriots offensive line has gone out to dinner every Thursday night.
Despite the team spending the week on the road in California as prep for Super Bowl LX continued, they were not going to let a tradition die.
On Wednesday night before families arrived into town from home, the group took their final trip of the season — which included some new guests such as Drake Maye, Hunter Henry, TreVeyon Henderson and more.
“Favorite part of this week is just being with teammates,
just being in the hotel for a week, getting to experience a lot of time. We had the O-line dinner last night, and it’s an experience,” Maye said. “You feel like you’re kind of living with your best friends again in college, in training camp, back in high school. You feel like you’re just around your teammates 24-7. It’s something that makes the experience just more special.”
The dinner of choice was Mastro’s Steakhouse in Santa Clara. A high-quality selection of steaks — that included a $200 tomahawk steak and a highly reviewed A5 Wagyu — made it’s way to the table in their private room. One lineman joked he didn’t even want to look at the bill, which is usually paid by a different player each week. Last night’s tab payer remained a mystery.
The group also made sure to get their usual order of Shirley Temples — the only mandatory purchase for each person in attendance in a tradition that started after a dinner at Kosmos, a Greek restaurant in Walpole, ahead of Week 2.
One lineman estimated roughly 50 were purchased last night.
“It was pretty absurd,” center Garrett Bradbury said. “It’s the same routine. We sit down, look at the menu. We get five appetizers of everything on the menu. We get 18 Shirley temples. It was awesome, one of the better dinners we had this year. I think the guys really enjoyed it.”
A seven-year veteran, Bradbury was the one who had initiated the dinners for the unit to bond and build camaraderie together away from the field. It has helped translate to success on it for a unit that featured four new starters.
“I give praise to Garrett Bradberry, first of all,” right tackle Morgan Moses said. “He leads us. He’s our center. We believe in him. He keeps us going and the bond that we build in this offensive line is undeniable. You can see how we talk to one another, how we cheer each other on, how when one guy’s missing for a game, another guy steps in and he feels like he’s a part of this because he worked his ass off to be here.
“And that’s what it’s about. That’s what it’s about is being brothers and just sticking together.”
On Wednesday night, the fun included the veterans leading some light hazing as rookies were forced to perform their college fight songs. Some players drew better reviews than others.
As the group now turns attention back to football, they hope to end things off with a Super Bowl championship Sunday night.
“I don’t want the year to end,” rookie left guard Jared Wilson said. “Man, this group is just — I’m a rookie in the NFL, I don’t know how it is every other place, it’s my first year, but if this is what it’s like this is lovely with these guys.”
