No Fair League
March 26, 2018 9:26 AM Subscribe
According to the [New Orleans] Saints’ handbook for cheerleaders, as well as internal emails and text messages reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with Davis, the Saints have an anti-fraternization policy that requires cheerleaders to avoid contact with players, in person or online, even though players are not penalized for pursuing such engagement with cheerleaders. The cheerleaders must block players from following them on social media and cannot post photos of themselves in Saints gear, denying them the chance to market themselves. The players are not required to do any of these things.How an Instagram Post Led to an N.F.L. Cheerleader’s Discrimination Case [Ken Belson, The New York Times]
Cheerleaders are told not to dine in the same restaurant as players, or speak to them in any detail. If a Saints cheerleader enters a restaurant and a player is already there, she must leave. If a cheerleader is in a restaurant and a player arrives afterward, she must leave.
[Cheerleaders] are allowed to work for [the Saints] for only four years.
I'm sure it's a total mystery to all involved why they have a restriction on how many years you can be a cheerleader. Can't think of any reasons offhand ...
posted by tocts at 9:38 AM on March 26, 2018 [12 favorites]
I'm sure it's a total mystery to all involved why they have a restriction on how many years you can be a cheerleader. Can't think of any reasons offhand ...
posted by tocts at 9:38 AM on March 26, 2018 [12 favorites]
Cheerleaders in the NFL can aspire to the lofty goal of being paid 10.25$ an hour in their final season, before they become too ancient to tolerate, in their early 20s?
Wow.
posted by randomnity at 9:53 AM on March 26, 2018 [25 favorites]
Wow.
posted by randomnity at 9:53 AM on March 26, 2018 [25 favorites]
Man. Those rules. Born of the same black, patriarchal fire as "women shouldn't dress [insert style of dress] because men can't help themselves" thinking.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:54 AM on March 26, 2018 [16 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 9:54 AM on March 26, 2018 [16 favorites]
It's not surprising that the NFL would have shitty policies toward the one job that is dominated by women, but it's still kind of impressive how many of the ways women are often treated unfairly their policies manage to reflect.
-- they make terrible pay. The NFL justifies this by basically saying they're contractors rather than employees (employed by the teams not the league). The Raiders cheerleaders used to make $100/game and have to do all the mandatory extra game events for free. Now they make minimum wage + overtime. Minimum wage! In the NFL!
-- but they can't leverage their positions. They're not allowed to wear team gear outside of games. So the old "low pay but great exposure" thing is overtly bullshit
-- they're held responsible for men's actions. The Saints example above is a classic, putting the onus on them to keep players from hitting on them, but really all the morality clause stuff. They have to dress as titilatingly but not one inch more titilatingly than their employers allow.
If it were up to me, all pro-sports -- including womens' -- would have mixed-gendered cheering. Or no cheering. But barring either of those things, I hope these women are able to unionize.
posted by mrmurbles at 9:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [31 favorites]
-- they make terrible pay. The NFL justifies this by basically saying they're contractors rather than employees (employed by the teams not the league). The Raiders cheerleaders used to make $100/game and have to do all the mandatory extra game events for free. Now they make minimum wage + overtime. Minimum wage! In the NFL!
-- but they can't leverage their positions. They're not allowed to wear team gear outside of games. So the old "low pay but great exposure" thing is overtly bullshit
-- they're held responsible for men's actions. The Saints example above is a classic, putting the onus on them to keep players from hitting on them, but really all the morality clause stuff. They have to dress as titilatingly but not one inch more titilatingly than their employers allow.
If it were up to me, all pro-sports -- including womens' -- would have mixed-gendered cheering. Or no cheering. But barring either of those things, I hope these women are able to unionize.
posted by mrmurbles at 9:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [31 favorites]
[X X X s] are allowed to work for [X X X] for ... [$10.25hr].
I don't see a starting point for a discussion in this proposition.
posted by mule98J at 10:09 AM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
I don't see a starting point for a discussion in this proposition.
posted by mule98J at 10:09 AM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
The story of how they treated this woman before firing her is appalling. It's such a blatant combination of slut-shaming and witch-hunting. I suspect that at least part of it is coming from denial on top of the standard misogyny: They don't want to admit that it's part of their cheerleaders' jobs to titillate men, because by their own values that would be distasteful. So they create a bunch of harsh, restrictive rules that let them pretend it's respectable, and make it the women's responsibility to maintain the fiction. Because holding men responsible would be too fucking much.
It boggles my mind that people are still this backwards.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:12 AM on March 26, 2018 [34 favorites]
It boggles my mind that people are still this backwards.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:12 AM on March 26, 2018 [34 favorites]
The restaurant thing sounds like it's straight out of the '40s or '50s. This is ridiculous.
posted by Slinga at 10:35 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Slinga at 10:35 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
Christ, $10/hr??? They pay each of the cheerleaders far less per game than the average fan paid for his/her ticket. I have a really, really hard time thinking that there is any way to logically justify that ridiculously low pay.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:37 AM on March 26, 2018 [14 favorites]
posted by caution live frogs at 10:37 AM on March 26, 2018 [14 favorites]
I'm scared to ask what happens when a cheerleader is injured during training or a performance.
posted by Quonab at 10:49 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Quonab at 10:49 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
I love that our local hometown team (the Buccaneers) have been sued in the past.
And settled.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 10:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
And settled.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 10:59 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Just one tangential question:
If a Saints cheerleader enters a restaurant and a player is already there, she must leave. If a cheerleader is in a restaurant and a player arrives afterward, she must leave.
Why is the cheerleader the one who needs to leave in both cases? If she got to the restaurant first and the player shows up, why isn't he the one who needs to leave in that case???
This is a rhetorical question and I know the answer is "because patriarchy" but yeah
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:07 AM on March 26, 2018 [18 favorites]
If a Saints cheerleader enters a restaurant and a player is already there, she must leave. If a cheerleader is in a restaurant and a player arrives afterward, she must leave.
Why is the cheerleader the one who needs to leave in both cases? If she got to the restaurant first and the player shows up, why isn't he the one who needs to leave in that case???
This is a rhetorical question and I know the answer is "because patriarchy" but yeah
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:07 AM on March 26, 2018 [18 favorites]
Like we needed another reason to despise the NFL.
posted by COD at 11:26 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by COD at 11:26 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]
The Saints have a special history with their female employees that the press never covers. They fired Randy Mueller for sex harassment and the newspapers did not print a word about the cause. They paid a pregnant (by then-head coach (and married) Jim Haslett) cheerleader to leave town and that also was never in the papers.
It gives the fans something to chat about during the two hours and fifty minutes of the three-hour game when there is no action.
posted by bukvich at 11:31 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
It gives the fans something to chat about during the two hours and fifty minutes of the three-hour game when there is no action.
posted by bukvich at 11:31 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Not just patriarchy, but also racism. Cheerleaders are overwhelmingly white. Pro football players are largely black. So of course the team has to make sure that "their girls" don't mix with "those people". Why that'd be positively indecent!
posted by sotonohito at 11:45 AM on March 26, 2018 [19 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 11:45 AM on March 26, 2018 [19 favorites]
I just wish that what limited labor and business laws that exist in the U.S. were applied equally to professional sports teams. There's just so much corruption everywhere these days but it seems like there's more in profi sports.
posted by The Correspondent on the Continent at 11:54 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by The Correspondent on the Continent at 11:54 AM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Saints owner Tom Benson died March 15, age 90. His wife Gayle is now the controlling owner of the Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans (NBA).
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:23 PM on March 26, 2018
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:23 PM on March 26, 2018
But when she posted a photo of herself in a one-piece outfit in January, Saints officials accused her, despite her protests, of breaking rules that prohibit cheerleaders from appearing nude, seminude or in lingerie.
THEIR REQUIRED WORK UNIFORMS ARE BASICALLY BIKINIS.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 1:43 PM on March 26, 2018 [21 favorites]
THEIR REQUIRED WORK UNIFORMS ARE BASICALLY BIKINIS.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 1:43 PM on March 26, 2018 [21 favorites]
The team says its rules are designed to protect cheerleaders from players preying on them.
Flames, side of my face, etc. If anything saves the team from going to trial, I bet it comes from the fine print in the NFL's special monopoly status.
posted by rhizome at 2:12 PM on March 26, 2018
Flames, side of my face, etc. If anything saves the team from going to trial, I bet it comes from the fine print in the NFL's special monopoly status.
posted by rhizome at 2:12 PM on March 26, 2018
Big-time professional sports remain an utter cancer.
posted by uberchet at 2:36 PM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by uberchet at 2:36 PM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]
I am a big football fan (NY Football Giants!), but I am an even bigger fan of the constitution and of equal rights and of treating people fairly with dignity and with respect. Also, I am a fan of paying people a wage commensurate with the rules and regulations attributed to that position. The rules should be the burden of the players not the cheerleaders.*
In terms that any football player or football team owner can understand, This is Bullshit.
*(I the rules are designed to keep the players from preying on the cheerleaders, why not just put in a rule for the players that says, no fraternizing with the cheerleaders. If you see one at a restaurant, pay her bill and leave. If one comes into a restaurant at which you are already dining, pay your bill, tip big, and leave.)
posted by AugustWest at 7:29 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
In terms that any football player or football team owner can understand, This is Bullshit.
*(I the rules are designed to keep the players from preying on the cheerleaders, why not just put in a rule for the players that says, no fraternizing with the cheerleaders. If you see one at a restaurant, pay her bill and leave. If one comes into a restaurant at which you are already dining, pay your bill, tip big, and leave.)
posted by AugustWest at 7:29 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
Why would anyone want to professionally cheerlead? Because other than the actual cheerleading, none of this sounds fun or worth it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:58 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:58 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
If it were up to me, all pro-sports -- including womens' -- would have mixed-gendered cheering. Or no cheering.
Do cheerleaders fulfil any function other than being low-level sexualised entertainment for the gaze of male sports fans? In other words, are they anything other than the booth babes of spectator sports? If not, they're an institution which should be scrapped.
posted by acb at 4:57 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
Do cheerleaders fulfil any function other than being low-level sexualised entertainment for the gaze of male sports fans? In other words, are they anything other than the booth babes of spectator sports? If not, they're an institution which should be scrapped.
posted by acb at 4:57 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
Do cheerleaders fulfil any function other than being low-level sexualised entertainment for the gaze of male sports fans?Nope.
they're an institution which should be scrapped.Yep. But while we're at it, let's scrap the leagues that employ them as well.
posted by uberchet at 6:24 AM on March 27, 2018 [3 favorites]
And yet another reason to hate the NFL: their financial structure is as a non-profit 501 C6.
posted by Mesaverdian at 4:47 PM on March 27, 2018
posted by Mesaverdian at 4:47 PM on March 27, 2018
In other words, are they anything other than the booth babes of spectator sports?
Yes? Though I can't say I've ever seen NFL cheerleaders do anything complicated, as an activity and spirit discipline cheer is pretty dang sophisticated. It hasn't done as much to separate itself from the sports it works with as marching band has, but it's still a legitimate thing unto itself.
posted by rhizome at 5:00 PM on March 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
Yes? Though I can't say I've ever seen NFL cheerleaders do anything complicated, as an activity and spirit discipline cheer is pretty dang sophisticated. It hasn't done as much to separate itself from the sports it works with as marching band has, but it's still a legitimate thing unto itself.
posted by rhizome at 5:00 PM on March 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
It’s not the same kind of cheering that has all the jumps and tumbling, but the women are dancers. They do have to have skill. To dismiss them as “booth babes” is pretty insulting. The cheerleaders do need to know the game, they have to do more than stand around and look pretty. They’re like the backup dancers for the football games.
posted by LizBoBiz at 10:58 PM on March 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by LizBoBiz at 10:58 PM on March 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
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