Absolutely. These girls are definitly dancers with the smallest bit of cheering in them. Sure they cheer for the football plasyers but no more than the crowds do. They are just lucky enough to be doing it right on the field. The images they project i personally think hurt the sport.

Really?   I think college cheerleaders try to lead the crowd.  I think cheerleaders from professional sports mainly pose for pictures with the male fans, and dance.  Haven't seen much "cheer" at all!

You are  absolutely right.  Sad to say.  But where is the sport part in what these older women do?

Unless you are a clipper girl, the dance for many of the teams isn't there either.

I cringe when anyone mentions pro sports cheerleaders and try to make a comparison to what my all star does. 

It takes a certain kind of talent to be able to pose with intoxicated beer-bellied Raider fans.   Would I ever in a million years want to see my daughter doing that someday?  That would be a gigantic no.

Anonymous wrote:

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Profressional Cheerleaders are dancers and models. I have a couple of friends who have tried out or have been apart of the NFL, NBA and AFL. You have to have the looks and be teachable to even be considered. Don't try to tell me different. Person A with 14 years of dance experience but have a lil extra in the trunk did not make final cut but person B with 2 years of dance experience and is beautiful made the final cut at Raiderettes try outs.

Can they be called something different? Not cheerleaders!

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Maybe Hooter girls, gold diggers, etc!       Cheerleading Athletes, NOT! They take all of the respect right out of the sport. Calling them Professional,  the money they get paid is a joke. 

Are the amazing at what they do? YES
Are they cheerleaders? NO

i think the ACTIVITY of cheerleading has evolved so much in the recent years, that we have created many different sports and activities that fall under the umbrella of "cheer."

i have nothing against "pro cheerleaders," and i don't feel they hurt our sport at all.  they're just a different genre that has evolved from the same common anccestor if you will.

i mean, think of all the different TYPES of "cheer" have evolved from just simple, sideling cheer-LEADING:

there are actually very few "genres" that actually still lead cheers: pop warner and high school/ college cheer.  some of these compete, and some don't, making even more sub-categories of cheer.  for the most part, emphasis is on school/team spirit.

but then on the other side, we have all star cheer and all star dance, which involves absolutely NO aspect of leading any crowd through cheers in any way.  the emphasis here is of course on the technical aspects of both cheer and dance.

and then there are school song/ dance teams, college dance teams, and pro "cheerleaders".  honestly, all very similar in what they do.  they focus on team spirit through the expression of dance.  they're job is to get the crowd excited through music, a few chants here and there, (i know some school song teams actually do CHEER, but some don't.) and of course by dancing in order to keep the team pumped up.  we just give the "pro" girls a bad name because they are more in the public eye, and because they share our "cheerleading" name even though they do something different.  (keep in mind, there are actually professional STUNT teams out there too......)

i guess my point is that if were gonna get huffy and puffy about pro cheerleaders not being cheerleaders, we should change the name of every different type of cheer just so that the common public doesn't get them confused.  from competitive cheer, to performance cheer, to crowd leading, to spirit leading, they're all under the same umbrella but are all still very different.

NO WOMEN, BACK IN THE DAY.