DeAngelo Hall was saved from the Falcons' rookie hazing by Paris Hilton
DeAngelo Hall is retired now, but he still has stories to tell about his days as a player. He stopped by the Simms & Lefkoe Show recently to tell a story about rookie hazing — or how his teammates’ attempt to haze him completely failed, thanks to a reality TV star.
Hall was a rookie with the Atlanta Falcons in 2004, and like many players before and since, he had to go through some hazing. In this case, hazing was paying for a weekend in Las Vegas with the Falcons defensive backs. Hall was the eighth pick in the draft, and he said that his teammates felt like he “had money to burn.” In 2004, Hall’s salary was $230,000, and he got a $2.1 million signing bonus. That’s definitely not nothing, but he wasn’t exactly making “pay for your teammates to party in Vegas for a weekend” kind of money.
You can see Hall tell his story starting at 14:35.
Hall had never been to Vegas, so he was excited… until it was defensive back night, and Hall had to pay for everything. He was blown away by the cost of the alcohol, but he was even more blown away by where their table was situated at the club. On one side was Paris Hilton and her entourage of, as Hall put it, “lovely ladies.” And on the other was David Hasselhoff and his “crew of lovely ladies.”
Eventually the Falcons defensive backs began partying with both tables, and someone joked that Hall would have to pick up the tab for all three tables. Thankfully Hall was only handed the bill for his table, but even that was astronomical — it came in at $15,000. But then Paris Hilton saved the day, and turned the Falcons hazing efforts into a failure. Hall said “before I could even put my card down, Paris took my bill and paid my tab.”
That was a really nice thing for her to do for a starstruck rookie who was worried about paying a massive bar bill, and Hall is still extremely grateful, even 14 years later. He said he wishes he could meet her and thank her in person. Paris Hilton has receded from the limelight quite a bit since 2004, so she probably has time to meet DeAngelo Hall and accept an in-person thank you, right? It’s clearly time to make this happen.
Yahoo Sports H/T: For the Win
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter at @lizroscher.
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