Redskins Cheerleaders Cried After They Were Told to Go Topless and Escort Male Sponsors
Cheerleaders describe troubling 2013 trip to Costa Rica in New York Times report
Reid Nakamura | May 2, 2018 @ 4:15 PM
Last Updated: May 2, 2018 @ 4:25 PM
Larry French/Getty Images
Washington Redskins cheerleaders were forced to pose nearly naked in front of male onlookers and serve as “personal escorts” for the team’s sponsors during a 2013 trip to Costa Rica, according to a New York Times report published on Wednesday.
The Times interviewed five women who attended the week-long trip for the squad’s annual calendar shoot. They said they were put into uncomfortable positions by the team leadership, with one anonymous cheerleader going as far as to say she felt they were “pimping us out.”
A representative for the Washington Redskins did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
During the shoot itself, the women were asked to pose topless or in body paint as the male sponsors looked on from the side. One of the cheerleaders who attended the shoot described “standing around [a friend] like a human barricade” to prevent them from seeing her naked. “I was getting so angry that the guys on the trip were skeezing around in the background,” she said.
According to the women, nine of them were then selected for another assignment which involved going to a night club where they met with male sponsors and Redskins officials and were encouraged to “drink and flirt” throughout the night.
“They weren’t putting a gun to our heads, but it was mandatory for us to go,” one of the cheerleaders told the Times, recalling the squad’s director Stephanie Jojokian as the one who informed them that they would go. “We weren’t asked, we were told. Other girls were devastated because we knew exactly what she was doing.”
For her part, Jojokian denied that attending the party was mandatory, and said she remembered some of the cheerleaders telling her “that was fun” the following day.
In a statement to the Times, the team did not address the specific allegations about the trip, but noted that “each Redskin cheerleader is contractually protected to ensure a safe and constructive environment.”
“It’s just not right to send cheerleaders out with strange men when some of the girls clearly don’t want to go,” said one of the cheerleaders. “But unfortunately, I feel like it won’t change until something terrible happens, like a girl is assaulted in some way, or raped. I think teams will start paying attention to this only when it’s too late.”
Sports and Politics Don't Mix? History Says Otherwise (Photos)
With President Donald Trump's grousing over recent protests in the NFL, the debate over whether athletes should express their political views through the platform of sports has heated up once again. But contrary to what some might believe, the phenomenon of athletes protesting didn't begin with Colin Kaepernick. Read on as TheWrap delves into the long-term relationship between sports and politics.
At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos -- who'd taken the gold and bronze medalists in the 200-meter dash -- took to the winners podium and raised their fists above their heads in a silent protest against discrimination against African-Americans in the United States. "If I win I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say 'a Negro.' We are black and we are proud of being black," Smith said of the protest.
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali famously refused to serve in the U.S. military during the Vietnam war, noting, “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?" In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom, calling him "a fierce fighter and a man of peace."
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States led a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The boycott would grow to 65 nations who refused to participate in the games.
Four years later, the USSR would return the favor, boycotting the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. "Chauvinistic sentiments and anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in this country," the Soviet government said of the boycott, which 13 other communist countries would also join.
At the beginning of the 1995-1996 NBA season, Denver Nuggets point guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf decided that he wouldn't salute the American flag during the playing of the national anthem prior to games. The decision went unnoticed for some time; when NBA commissioner David Stern handed down a one-game suspension to the player. The NBA later reached a compromise, mandating that Abdul-Rauf stand for the anthem, but allowing him to close his eyes and face downward.
In 2014, following the death of Eric Garner after a confrontation with police in New York, Cleveland Cavaliers stars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving wore shirts emblazoned with the phrase "I Can't Breathe" -- Garner's reported last words -- while warming up for a game against the Brooklyn Nets. Nets players Jarrett Jack, Alan Anderson, Deron Williams and Kevin Garnett also donned the shirts.
In 2016, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick opted not to stand during the national anthem, saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color ... To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
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From Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick, a timeline of protesting athletes
With President Donald Trump's grousing over recent protests in the NFL, the debate over whether athletes should express their political views through the platform of sports has heated up once again. But contrary to what some might believe, the phenomenon of athletes protesting didn't begin with Colin Kaepernick. Read on as TheWrap delves into the long-term relationship between sports and politics.
