Rutgers University offers its American football team a plethora of perks among which was unlimited food deliveries using the popular food ordering app DoorDash (Deliveroo’s US equivalent). The costs piled up quickly, reaching almost half a million dollars in the 14 months from May 2021, northjersey.com reports.

Rutgers intended the luxury to be seldom used, providing up to five meals up to a total of $75 (£65) per week to the football players - to “sometimes replace” otherwise “in-house catered to-go meals”. However, this is not how it turned out in practice. Some players racked up bills topping $100 (£87) on a daily basis and some went even higher than $200 (£175).

Orders exceeded $40,000 (£35,000) per month five times, with an average of 1,500 orders per month, or 50 per day.

Upon further scrutiny it was revealed that some orders were places with retailers who didn’t even offer food. Orders for houseware, flowers, gifts and pet food.

This comes as the football team has racked up an annual operating deficit of $73 million (£63.9m), while the university has gone through layoffs, furloughs, and a hiring freeze.