NFL’S rules for women have no place in sport today
The firing of a cheerleader for being pictured in a swimsuit smacks of double standards, says Daniel Schofield
If a player walks into a restaurant where a cheerleader is eating, she must leave
The Handmaid’s Tale, the Margaret Atwood novel turned into a TV series last year, depicts a dystopian future in which a fundamentalist regime subjects women to a form of sexual servitude. As bleak a portrait as it paints of the human condition, the recent revelations regarding the treatment of NFL cheerleaders prove it is all too believable.
Last weekend, The New York Times published some of the codes of conduct that NFL teams enforce upon their cheerleaders. The details are hideous. Of course, there are plenty of regulations surrounding the appearance of their “eye candy”. Tattoos and body piercings must be removed or covered up. Regular weigh-ins are also a feature. The Cincinnati Bengals expected cheerleaders to be within three pounds of their “ideal weight”.
Even more chilling are the rules regarding their off-field activities and private life. No fraternisation is allowed with players. If a player follows them on social media, then they are obliged to block him.
Even more gallingly, if a player walks into a restaurant where a cheerleader is eating then she must get up and leave instantly whether or not she has finished her meal. There are no such rules prohibiting players from making contact with cheerleaders.
There are also details governing personal hygiene, including shaving and tampons, clothing (no tracksuits allowed) and even etiquette advice. The Oakland Raiders advise their cheerleaders that “bread is to be broken with your hands” and “pass food to your right”.
Yet the most appalling of double standards is to be found in the strict prohibition of images in which they appear nude, semi-nude or in lingerie. The very function of cheerleaders is to titillate and arouse a largely male audience by gyrating half-naked, often in freezing conditions. Appear like that on your own time, however, and you risk corrupting America’s youth.
It was a violation of this rule that led Bailey Davis to being fired as a cheerleader by New Orleans Saints after she posted an image on social media of herself in a swimsuit. Davis, 22, is now suing the Saints on gender discrimination grounds arguing that the Saints players do not have to abide by the same clothing rules.
Incidentally, one duty the Saints cheerleaders used to perform was selling glossy calendars of themselves in bikinis.
Perhaps sympathy to Davis’s cause will be limited. After all, she and dozens of others willingly sign these contracts.
Last year, ESPN estimated that most cheerleaders were paid between $75 to $150 (£53 to £106) a game. Once practice and additional commitments were weighed in, they barely earned minimum wage.
Hopefully, Davis’s lawsuit may prompt change and a wider reflection on the place of cheerleading within sport. Last week, the LA Rams named two men, Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies, in their official cheerleading squad for the first time in their NFL history.
At college level, cheerleading is mixed and can be considered a sport, much like group gymnastics, with its coordinated acrobatics, lifts and tumbling. In December 2016, the International Olympic Committee granted competitive cheerleading provisional recognition.
Yet somehow all this skill is lost in the transition to the NFL
– and other sports – which reduces the status of women to eye candy in a blizzard of bikinis and pom-poms. That is an anachronism that has no place in 21st century sport.