A New NFL Cheerleader Learns The Rules
There’s been a cheerleader controversy brewing in a sort of backhall hushed tones sorta way this past month or so. I think it deserves more attention than it’s getting. Basically NFL cheerleaders are exploited. Bad pay. Crap treatment. Some sketchy job duties. It’s a shit job and some former members are calling out teams for how bad it is.
I’ve always kinda thought the NFL shouldn’t have cheerleaders to begin with. The arenas are too big to enjoy them at a live game and the TV really only shows them on commercial bumpers for split seconds mostly for T&A, so their choreographed routines and work are completely ignored. It seemed like a pointless job in this day and age. But, if the ladies want to try and parlay it into a modeling career or pay for school or whatever, who am I to call for the end of cheerleaders? It can’t be that bad a gig, right? Keep in shape, learn some moves, look hot and get paid. Maybe do a calendar or appearance once in a while. There are worse jobs. I figured there would be some negatives to the gig and it wouldn’t be perfect, but this is worse than I thought.
Some of the stories we’ve had break about the Saints and Redskins cheerleaders have been pretty gross. The surprisingly shit level of pay (not even bad pay, below bad pay) for the effort they have to go through to stay in shape and learn the dances. The absolutely bonkers rules that some teams employ, like the Saints cheerleaders who have to get up and leave if they are off duty and a player comes by the same social place they are. I don’t understand how that rule even makes sense. Some other news about creepy treatment of the Skins cheerleaders also came out. They went to an adults resort to take topless photos for creepy dudes and they had their passports taken in the process.
It’s one of those situations where you read some of the stories and you feel bad because you aren’t surprised. Of course this crap was happening. Cheerleaders are of course exploited, because why wouldn’t they be? Knowing Jerry Jones I can’t imagine some of the stuff that’s probably happened at some point just to Dallas. I wonder how many cheerleaders have quit because of creepy and demeaning stuff.
I don’t know who really cares about cheerleaders these days outside perverts. They don’t add anything meaningful to the experience. I’d rather watch another slow motion replay of a player eating dirt as a commercial bumper than another blatant shot of some cheerleader’s ass, which makes me feel skeeved out. If they eliminated cheerleaders at the end of all this I’d be fine with it. If they kept cheerleaders I’d be fine with it. But it sucks that they can’t even just have plain old cheerleaders without making it worse. If teams want to have cheerleaders, just fucking treat them fairly.
I also find it sad that I find this hilarious primarily because Dan Snyder is an asshole
I will now resume to sticking my head up my own ass since Jerry Jones owns my team and there’s DEFINITLY NOTHING WRONG THERE
Dave, dude, I love you and I know you didn’t mean it this way, but this sort of comes across as “what should we do about this exploitation of women?” “Just get rid of the women’s jobs.”
It’s kind of a hard position to argue without sounding bad from some perspective. I’m personally not bothered by teams having cheerleaders but they do seem useless and if they phased them out we wouldn’t miss much and maybe some women won’t get exploited. But I really don’t want to cause unemployment either.
I hope they treat them fairly or phase them out, either one is probably better than what we currently have.
I mean – they DO come from a time where seats were closer to the field and HDTV didn’t exist (and it was ok to slap women on the asses at work). That being said I have several friends who cheered for the Hawks/Falcons and they are very proud of this.
This was never their full time job but was a way they could showcase a skillset they practiced their whole life (dancing) without having to make it a full time gig or becoming an “erotic dancer”.
I’d love to ask them about this topic (and plan to when I see them), but I imagine that they’d prefer better pay/treatment over canning the whole thing.
I’d rather them get treated better too but I think phasing them out is more likely to happen because the NFL would much rather sweep things under rugs than address issues correctly.
Literally all they’d have to do is pay minimum wage and say “no strippimg/groping” and no one would care.
But isn’t the very job exploitative? Their whole point is to be eye candy.
It is by nature rather exploitative in that sense, but if some women are okay with the kinda eye candy aspect it’s not that bad and I don’t want to tell anyone NO YOU CANT CHEERLEAD. The bad comes with the unfair pay and bizarre treatment.
I think it’s just bad all around. I mean, does anybody watch them if they dress like Will Ferrell’s Spartan cheerleader(no skirt, pants)? Hell, the minutemen at Gillette are more cheer leading than the cheerleaders.
Nobody is asking the minutemen to shake their titties.
I do agree, I don’t think there should be cheerleaders in the NFL. Like you said, on TV they’re usually there during switches at commercial breaks, and other than that they’re rarely on the screen. Even if you went to a stadium, you probably wouldn’t even be focused on that. The stadiums are huge, and all you’re focused on is the game, so there’s no real need for them. Plus, the stadium already plays chants and music over the speakers to hype up the crowd, so the need for cheerleaders are diminishing.
But, if women do want to become cheerleaders, and they enjoy it, I don’t want to rain all over their parade. I completely agree with you Dave.
Also, if we had no more cheerleaders, we’d have reduced chances of another masturbating security guard incident.
i know (or at least, i hope) you didn’t mean it this way, but the way your comment is written is literal victim blaming
not hiring shitbags for security guards reduces chances of another masturbating security guard
Pretty sure he was just being funny there, don’t get too mad bro
It’s sad that the NAL (2nd tier arena league with the J’ville Sharks) pays more for something than the NFL does.
Also, it shows how the guy who based his league on “look how sexy these cheerleaders are” is now doing away with them.
There is cheerleaders???
Bills got rid of the Buffalo Jills a few years ago and replaced them with the “Stampede” drum line.
No one noticed.
Why does the NFL even HAVE cheerleaders?
Also, nice hovertext
Fan service and possible distractions for horny players.
Just like in The Replacements.
re hover text: It’s pretty meta:
http://www.thedrawplay.com/comic/gronk-the-porn-star/
Dave has already Rule 34’d himself and didn’t even remember it
Nah, that’s not rule 34. Rule 34 would be somebody drawing my comic avatar doing it with Sexy Rexy
that is just a comic setting
Speaking of exploiting women, has anyone seen some of the LFL highlights or been to a game? Those girls hit pretty viciously and they’re barely wearing any clothes/pads. No other thoughts I just felt like the comments are a safe space for arena football discussion.
That’s because the dipshit who runs the LFL now (Jerry Kurz) nearly ran the Arena Football League into the ground (Bring Back the Rush knows what I’m talking about) and pissed away over 100 markets as head of the AF2.
Also, I haven’t seen a single LFL game, and the only AFL safe space I see, other than ArenaFan, is the chat on NAL games on YouTube.
Watch some of the highlights. Most of the players played some form of college athletics. There was one DE who is like 6’5″ 190, but shredded just laying girls out. It’s actually good football and because of the size of the arena its faster than you think.
Is this one of the rare opportunities where I get to act smug and superior because my favorite team doesn’t have cheerleaders?
Cheerleading used to be the thing women did because they weren’t allowed to play real sports. It continues to exist because creepy dudes like ogling ladies and ex-cheerleaders and current cheerleaders are incredibly defensive and protective of cheerleading. Professional cheerleaders don’t even lead cheers anymore. They’ve been replaced by the jumbo-tron. I would be happy if cheerleading went away forever. In a world where women can play real sports, cheerleading is a relic.
well i guess the throngs of former and current cheerleaders proud of their chosen profession, the ones you fucking mentioned, are irrelevant in comparison to your internet opinion
You give me one good reason why cheerleading should exist and I’ll take back everything I said about it.
Because a lot of cheerleaders want to do it, and if there’s an audience, it’s not our business to say no, you can’t do something you love because sometimes other people were exploited when doing it? It’s paternalistic to decide you know best what’s OK for women to do.
The right thing to do is to put a hard stop to exploitation and abuse, not ban an activity that has both workers wanting to work, and customers wanting to see it.
thank god, someone recognizes that the point is not whether cheerleading should be discontinued, but rather whether cheerleaders should be treated like human fucking beings
which admittedly shouldn’t be much of a debate, yet here we are
I’m not saying I want to forcibly stop people from being cheerleaders. I’m just saying it’s dumb. I’m not saying cheerleaders shouldn’t be treated fairly, paid a decent wage and not sexually harassed. I just think there’s no point to cheerleading.
If they’re going to have cheerleaders, the NFL should mandate they each get the league minimum player salary.
The rule 34 cartoon better involve Sexy Rexy.