For Mhkeeba Pate, no Super Bowl will ever beat the 2014 game. Her hometown team, the Seattle Seahawks, fought from underdog status to domination over the Denver Broncos, knocking them out 43-8. And Pate had the best seats in the house – she was on the field the entire time. Pate, who was a Seattle “Sea Gal” cheerleader for five seasons from 2011–2017, remembers seeing the likes of Gayle King taking her seat near the sideline, and dancing for and with fans.
“It was just amazing. Getting to dance in the end zone. It’s the ultimate experience. That’s our Super Bowl, too,” says Pate.
But 2014 also marks a low point in the cheer world, the beginning of an unraveling that the industry is still working through today. Less than two weeks before Pate performed at the Super Bowl, the former Oakland Raiders cheerleader Lacy Thibodeaux-Fields filed the first class-action lawsuit against the NFL regarding cheerleaders’ compensation, alleging wage theft and gender discrimination. She alleged she was paid only for the hours she was performing – not the thrice-weekly rehearsals or her work as an ambassador for the Raiders at events. At the end of the 2013-2014 season, she was paid a lump sum of $1,250. For comparison, an NFL mascot could earn up to $65,000 in a year.
Jobs that have other attractions pay nowt. Jobs that are particularly noisome pay lots of cash. Shrug. Ol’ Adam pointed this out 243 years ago. Perhaps it should have sunk in by now? The total compensation for different jobs is roughly and around and about equal. It’s the portions of the compensation in excitement, contentment, interest, cash which vary.
The cheerleading at the games isn’t the job, it’s the marketing.
The money comes from personal appearances. Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders opening supermarkets, that sort of thing. Plus quite a lot of cheerleaders have ended up being models, doing TV etc etc. Good way to get spotted for a future career.
It’s how all these Dancing on Ice/Strictly Come Dancing shows work. They don’t have to pay people much because the appearance money for 6 months after is very good.
Hit Girl shows how to do cheerleading properly
https://youtu.be/H44YauhtGPU
Yes, I think a few moments of quiet contemplation of cheerleaders, pole dancers & women’s beach volleyball teams are called for here. Aaaaah….. Perfection.
https://youtu.be/TlTKhPkZSJo
This was doing the rounds on DavidThompson yesterday. Most enjoyable.,
No doubt there were many with similar training, tits and teeth who would’ve paid to take her place, so not much value there love
Should have gone for the mascot role then. How stupid are some people?
For Mhkeeba Pate
But is she as sexy as Mbongo Canapé?
“an NFL mascot could earn up to $65,000 in a yearL
What?
Boddicker,
I’m not sure there’s much value anyway. If cheerleaders add so much value, why doesn’t baseball have them?
I think cheerleaders in the NFL are just one of those traditions that came from the weird thing of how people go and watch the high school team in their town, and girls like dancing more than sport, so they got them to be cheerleaders. Its a normalised thing.
“Some have gotten rid of their cheer squads altogether”. And I’ll bet that this sort of action drove this. Not even that the women would win, but just the total ballache and costs of fighting lawsuits against someone probably backed by radical feminists picking on technicalities.
Could Rocco chime in here on average compensation for his “cheerleaders”?
Must admit I think getting rid of the squads altogether is by far the most sensible thing to do.
You’ve got all this whining bullshit to deal with if you have them. The only real question is whether they improve the gate receipts. And evidently they don’t.
“how people go and watch the high school team in their town” The spectators for my school rugby team might be two men and a dog. It was hard to guess which of the three would write the match report for the local rag.
Exception: a bunch of girls turned up once. I didn’t know why. Then I gave a bit of a hospital pass to our hooker who was instantly submerged under opponents. From the touchline came a mighty wail: “Oh, Lachlan!” Then I knew why.
Good to see the Guardian demonstrating the sort of seriousness of purpose we’ve come to expect from them.
Once upon a time the reputed point of a girl being a cheerleader was to catch herself one of the team and engage in some personal extracurricular activities that might lead to a permanent engagement on said player’s arm.
Seems like the cheerleaders are over estimating their value in the same way that Megan Rapione and the US Women’s football team tend to to.
“ I think cheerleaders in the NFL are just one of those traditions that came from the weird thing of how people go and watch the high school team in their town, and girls like dancing more than sport, ”
A number of years ago some girls were doing some bag packing and carrying at a local Tesco to raise money for their cheerleading group. In my naivety I asked what sport they were supporting and the young lass looked at me as if I had 2 heads. She then patiently explained to me that cheerleading was an end in itself and they sometimes did displays.
Apparently it’s a big competition thing in the States and Matt Stoller even looked in to how a monopoly has formed around it.
https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/this-is-not-a-democracy-its-a-cheerocracy
Clearly you haven’t seen the sports movies Bring It On and it’s various sequels about the noble cheerleaders and their sporting journey
To be fair the first one isn’t that bad
BiND,
“A number of years ago some girls were doing some bag packing and carrying at a local Tesco to raise money for their cheerleading group. In my naivety I asked what sport they were supporting and the young lass looked at me as if I had 2 heads. She then patiently explained to me that cheerleading was an end in itself and they sometimes did displays.”
Yeah, get with it 😉 I think this is a good evolution, into an actual thing in its own right.
“Apparently it’s a big competition thing in the States and Matt Stoller even looked in to how a monopoly has formed around it.”
Sporting competition tends to lead to monopoly because it has really strong network effects, especially how teams aren’t allowed to compete elsewhere.
Warrington Wolves RLFC have a cheerleading squad (The Wirettes) who do cheerleading stuff during games and are generally ignored by the crowd. They look like they enjoy it though, even on freezing cold nights in February.
Their tops are tight enough to tell, from back in the stands?
It doesn’t change the point of the story but Ms. Pate was, as I understand it, a true employee of the Seahawks. The “Sea Gals” (now Seahawk dancers since they have added men) benefited from the fact that the team owner was Paul Allen- a Microsoft cofounder and decent bloke. Of course, it is easy to be nice to your employees when you have all those billions. Most franchise owners are, despite their team’s paper value being int he billions, not cash flush.
We also happen to be at that Super Bowl. Fantastic time.