The Washington Football Team will discontinue its long-running cheerleader program in 2021, and instead will have a co-ed dance team, according to USA TODAY.
Washington has hired Petra Pope, who spent more than 30 years working in entertainment for NBA teams, to lead gameday entertainment and the creative direction of the dance team, which she tells USA TODAY will be "more inclusive," hence the co-ed designation.
"We want to be more inclusive, so we are going to invite a coed entity (to audition)," Pope tells USA TODAY. "We’re able to do more things with the strength of a male, and lifts, so that’s changed a great deal. The inclusivity, strength and interest of choreography has changed."
The Washington Football Team has come under intense scrutiny for its treatment of female employees after a series of Washington Post reports published in recent months, all stemming from a WaPo report last July in which 12 former employees accused the organization of sexual harassment.
That resulted in the firing of two front office members, Alex Santos and Richard Mann II, and possibly the abrupt retirement of longtime team broadcaster Larry Michael, as well as a months-long investigation by the NFL into the organization's workplace culture. That investigation is being spearheaded by Beth Wilkinson and is said to be independent of the team, although Wilkinson was initially hired by Washington owner Dan Snyder to conduct her review.
Another Washington Post report in August described former Washington cheerleaders being exploited while on a photo shoot in 2008. While the women were there to shoot a swimsuit calendar, it's alleged that a separate video was recorded without their knowledge, "intended strictly for private use," derived from outtakes from the shoot, in which the women's bare nipples were exposed.
A former employee on Michael's staff told The Post that Michael described those outtakes as "the good bits." That same former employee also described Michael ordering staffers to make the video for Snyder. Michael adamantly denied the allegation to The Post. The organization has denied the existence of those videos and an attorney representing Snyder tells USA TODAY that the matter "has been resolved." Washington reached a settlement with those former cheerleaders without a lawsuit being filed.
Now, after 59 years, that cheerleader program is no more. Pope tells USA TODAY that all of Washington's cheerleader contracts have expired, but those women are all welcome to audition for the 2021 dance squad.
A person with knowledge of the settlement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tells USA TODAY Washington's gameday rebrand is unrelated to the settlement. Members of the new dance squad will not participate in any future calendar shoots.
