So here we go.
Over the past year or so, cheerleaders have been everywhere. They even made an appearance in Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
In the NBA, they became a bit of a distraction. Pat told you all about the the Celtics dance team, but I provided you with the video of the announcers who were a bit tongue-tied over Bridget from the Denver Nuggets.
It's understandable how a guy can be rendered speechless by something like that. It's not half as bad as Kenny Albert, who referred to the Green Bay Packers as the "Knockers," most likely in homage to the Titans cheerleaders. I can see how someone could make a mistake like that.
Kenny Albert isn't the only one who finds cheerleaders distracting. Michael Strahan said that he thinks the only reason teams even have cheerleaders is to distract members of the opposing team. I suppose that's reasonable. I'm not sure how often it works, but one thing is for sure; it works on Ben Roethlisberger. He has a serious problem with cheerleaders, and wishes that they would just leave him alone. Yes, who would want someone like this distracting them? Um, me.
If Ben thinks it's tough paying attention on the field, imagine trying to play a video game against a cheerleader? There's no way I could keep my focus. Plus, if you were (for some insane reason) playing the cheerleading game on the Wii, you'd probably get smoked by someone like this.
Our Jets cheerleader here wasn't one of the Pro Bowl cheerleaders, but then again, there were quite a few snubs last year at the Pro Bowl, and not just the players, either. As far as I'm concerned, any Dallas Cowboys cheerleader who didn't get picked is a snub. I'm not a Cowboys fan by any stretch, but there's no denying their cheerleader superiority. Don't believe me? Check out the calendar.
Are there any cheerleaders out there better than the Cowgirls? Probably not, but if they exist, you probably have to go abroad to find them. In our 3-part USA vs Europe basketball cheerleaders/dancers breakdown, however, you might notice that as awesome as they are in Europe, they probably still can't measure up to the ladies in Dallas.
European cheerleaders match up well with the USA, but what about NCAA football vs the NFL? We covered that, too. Wondering who won? Well... take a look. Or just think about it... who's usually better, college or the pros?
One thing that hurt the college game was definitely the kind of people who make decisions at Idaho. The Vandals had a real good thing going with their cheer squad, but chose to do some uniform alterations that resulted in uniforms that were less skimpy and revealing than the old ones. I totally disapprove. If you want to compete with the pros, you have to be even more revealing, not less.
It probably doesn't matter too much, though, since the Vandals weren't really in the running for the best college cheerleaders anyway. That one ended up going to UCLA in a runaway win, with their huge collection of celebrity star power. Are they even cheerleaders down there in LA, or just paid actresses? Who cares? In what shouldn't really shock anyone, UCLA won the basketball bracket as well. Man, they're really doing it right at UCLA now.
Spying on the Patriots cheerleader auditions was an interesting event. That's where the Caitlin Davis story began. That's a tragic one... and it ended with her huddling over an incredibly inebriated friend who had swastikas and penises drawn all over his body. Bad move, Caitlin.
The incident cost poor Caitlin her job, but it will give her more time to relax by the pool. So maybe that's a blessing in disguise. I'll let you be the judge.
Caitlin's misfortune drove us to do a little digging and come up with the 10 biggest cheerleader scandals of all time. That was definitely some grueling research.
But no matter what they do, cheerleaders will always be cool here on FanIQ. After all, they're about the only reason to tune into a Lions/Chiefs game. Solid work cheerleaders on a stellar 2008. Here's hoping you bring us more joy in 2009, and lots more scandals. Scandals rule.
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