March 27, 2018--Still A Long Way, Baby

Until yesterday I didn't pay much attention to NFL cheerleaders. Not the ones that Debbie did, but the actual ones such as Bailey Davis who was recently fired by the New Orleans Saints.

As reported by the New York Times, here's the story--

 
She was fired for allegedly not following team rules, which, among many other prohibitions, forbids its cheerleaders from having public social media pages. In Davis' case, she failed to make her Instagram page private and on it posted a picture of herself in a slinky one-piece swimsuit.

As silly as this may seem, considering what NFL cheerleaders are expected to do and look like on the filed ( a lot of T&A), it is beyond silly that the NFL and most of its teams have two very different sets of rules for the deportment of its players (many of whom are sexual and spousal abusers) and its cheerleaders (who, at their worst, since it is forbidden by team rules, have dated a player or two).

The Saints have to avoid contact with players, though players are not disciplined for equivalent behavior with cheerleaders. They are required to block players from following them on Facebook and the like though, again, players are not required to do the same.

Incredibly, cheerleaders are not allowed to dine in the same restaurants or speak to players if they find themselves in the same watering hole. If a cheerleader shows up and a player is present, she is required to turn around and leave. Most outrageous, if a cheerleader is already seated at a table and a player appears, she is required to stop eating, immediately get up, and leave!

The team says, these and other similar rules are designed to "protect cheerleaders from players preying on them."

Knowing their players all too well, protecting cheerleaders from them is not that bad an idea. But the Saints' rules put the onus on its cheerleaders to protect themselves from testosterone-suffused players.

To view this another way, while 350-pound players make millions a year for slamming into each other and administering concussions, cheerleaders basically make minimum wage (in New Orleans, $10.55 an hour) for jiggling around even in freezing weather half naked in team-designed outfits. 

Again, think about the Dallas Cowgirls, not Bailey Davis on Instagram.