Diversion: Jets Cheerleaders Yay or Nay?
Please allow me this quick gameday diversion … I promised Jane I would respond to her thoughts earlier this week, it’s just taken me a little longer than I thought…
Jane McManus, the lone female on the Jets beat, wrote a blog piece on lohud.com this past week about the Jets Flight Crew and her opinions all things when it comes to the body cheer.
I don’t like the banner-waving, lady lump-shaking gals in their designer uniforms, which seem to evoke what men’s wear would look like if it was mostly white underwear bursting out of it.
I thought about it for a few days, and I think Jane writes a well-reasoned argument, but I think I agree with her … but for different reasons.
As someone who is not a woman, I try to leave defining the empowerment of women to experts on the subject (like you know women), but I confess that maybe I’m just an old grump at too young an age.
I loved the fact that our team was one of the few that didn’t have cheerleaders. There was something very lunchpail about it. In areas where people historically didn’t care about pro football, teams like the Tampa Bay Bucs probably felt they HAD to resort to scantily clad cheerleaders to get fans to show up, to cheer, to watch the games at home. Since the team and TV product were so awful, how else could you keep folks watching? But some teams resisted the trend like the Giants, Jets, Packers, Steelers and Browns, to name a few.
To me though it seems like pandering, which in light of my Iron Ref Campaign Promise (sorry fans, no win, no blatant pandering) is a clear indication that I’m not afraid to call the kettle black while coming to a rolling boil for tea myself. Moreso, if the PR Director of the Jets called me and asked me to interview one of the ladies … I’d claw over that glassy eyed beat reporter (I wonder who that could be … hmm) Jane references in a flash.
As Brian Fantana astutely observed in Anchorman, “don’t get me wrong, I love the ladies. I mean, they rev my engines” but if I really wanted to look at scantily clad girls who were trick or treating just five years ago, dancing around in fetish outfits, there’s a million other places I could go to find that.
One more thing, I have to wonder about the granny panty ruffled bottom thing that the Flight Crew wears … it looks like they’re wearing diapers to me … I’m thrown by it … I’m not sure if I’m supposed to like it, or not … basically it’s just confusing to my WASP-y suburban roots.
Bottom line, I admit that I was proud that the Jets were one of those last bastions against it, but it’s here now, so not sure there’s really anything else to do.
7 Responses to Diversion: Jets Cheerleaders Yay or Nay?
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Ryan says:
Totally agree. I loved the fact that we didn’t have cheerleaders. They are annoying, plain and simple.
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Prince says:
Beats the hell out of that stupid flagman ritual. I say keep ‘em.
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Yes cheerleaders are terrible. Especially when the Jets are down by double digits and there is no sense leaving because traffic is backed up for miles.
I would much rather sit and watch the action on the field during those games, lol.
I am all for blasting the Jets when they get something wrong. But this one they got right. If you don’t like the flight crew you can easily not look their way.
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JP says:
We have needed cheerleaders forever. We don’t have any eye candy. Anyone who disagrees is a tool and so that means you three are tools.
jp
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DannyMazz says:
Cheerleaders are awesome simple as that
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Bstev says:
Keep the cheerleaders, too much testosterone without them! Plus, it never hurt to have some eye candy…. Can’t wait till christmas time, maybe they’ll be half nude then in a santa’s cap!
I can’t stand cheerleaders at football games. They’re juvenile and pointless. They bring absolutely zero to a game. In basketball, it’s fine, as the arena is small enough that they can actually do dance routines and have it come off well, but cheerleaders just get swallowed up in a football stadium. About the only point to them is having a cameraman get close-in shots during the cut-in from commercial…and really, that’s not much of a point.
Really, go away, Flight Crew.