Quinton Peron and Napolean Jinnies became the first male cheerleaders in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams as the Washington Football Team will be using male cheerleaders as well (NBC4i.com photo)
Washington Football team Replacing traditional Cheerleaders
That’s Amaury News and Commentary
By Amaury Pi-González
The Washington Football team (once the Redskins) continues making changes after their name change last year. This week they announced they would be doing away with the Cheerleading team, the traditional way and will instead make it a coed dance group. Expect some other teams in the future to follow the Washington team.
26 of the 32 NFL teams include cheerleader’s squad in their franchise. How important is this to the average football fan, viewer, and remains to be seen. I expect ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick to have a statue erected on his likeness, because, like him or not, he basically started all these changes in the NFL and other sports with a simple knee he took in protest.
For the record: at the time it happened, I defended his right to free speech under the first amendment, and at the same time I exercise my equal right to free speech when I said I did not like what he did; but I respected it and understood his motivation.
The Washington Football team recently is making news where they do not wanted to make news. After all, they play in the weakest division in the NFL. The NFC East where last season they finished in first place, but with a 7-9 record a .438 winning percentage. They are re-branding this team in, but we all know the overwhelming majority of NFL fans could care less what you name your team, what cheerleaders you have or the color or logos of the uniform.
Even for some Raiders fans, they even travel from Oakland to Las Vegas when they play now, that is important for them, winning and losing is where the passion in football resides, not in these other issues.
In this instance of the Washington Football team and what changes they had made so far, I like to use the iconic quote by the legendary owner of the Oakland Raiders, now Las Vegas Raiders “Just win, baby” by Mr. Al Davis. Sports is part of the “very interesting”, era in history that we are living today.
Today there are arbitrary decisions made in many different places, not only in Sports. Some make sense, others are ridiculous. There was a time when sports were not intertwined with the world of entertainment as much as today.
Social media has facilitated these “changes” in our society. There is a “cancel culture” debate going on for a while now. Recently some of Dr. Seuss, children’s books have been cancelled or eliminated by some.
Like EBay which recently stop selling them, while they still sell Mein Kampf, or books on how to build a nuclear bomb as well as other highly offensive and dangerous books. I also heard in stadiums prior to games many rap songs that literally insult women and call them names. I would never use those names against anyone.
We should never be afraid of information and knowledge; after all, we all die still learning. I believe in more books not less, but as a free society it is very dangerous to be selective in what we “cancel.” I strongly believe in free speech and I can appreciate it passionately, because where I came from, that does not exist.
Some people take it for granted, not me. But I also see a lot of stuff that is silly and stupid. Sports are one of the biggest escapes we have, and still make us feel like kids. No country has a perfect history.
We learned from our mistakes of the past, if we “erase” all of our history, (bad or good) that is not smart for future generations. They are going to have machines making decisions for them, they will be ‘brain dead’ and that is not Kosher. But here is the good news. Most of the cancelling has been done by private companies, not the Government, Thank God.
Stay well and stay tuned.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary podcasts every Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
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