popular thinking

WHEN ARE CHEERLEADERS MORE THAN CHEERLEADERS?

That is the question I posed to the squad that root, root, roots for the New England Patriots earlier this fall at their unveiling of the 2006 Pats cheerleaders calendar. And this is the resulting story, in today's Boston Herald:

Since Sept. 11, 2001 the New England Patriots have won three of four Super Bowls, and the team’s cheerleaders have enjoyed a similar wave of success.
Multiple overseas USO tours to support the troops.
TV ads for Pepsi, Coors Light, ESPN and Visa.
Magazine spreads in Maxim, FHM, Playboy, Muscle & Fitness, among others.
And, of course, a lot of regular prime-time exposure on featured “Monday Night Football” games, including tonight’s home game against the Indianapolis Colts.
But is that enough to get the Patriots cheerleaders national recognition?
“I think we do already,” said squad director and choreographer Tracy Sormanti. “We’ve been to Florida. We’ve been to Texas. We’ve been everywhere.”
That includes 20 different countries on Patriots cheerleader passports since 9/11 and first choice for patriotic appearances. “We’re also lucky to wear the red, white and blue,” Sormanti said. “America’s Team, in my opinion.”
The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders might have something to say about that. They got their own network TV movies in the late 1970s - the first one garnering a 33 Nielsen rating. That’s more popular than anything on TV today.
The Laker Girls also got a TV movie in 1990, and once had an aspiring singer and dancer named Paula Abdul on their dance team in the 1980s.
Les Stella from the U.S. All Star Federation, a conglomerate for cheer and dance teams, said the Cowboys squad stood out because it was the first to take advantage of “publicity, posters” and the success of the football team to gain recognition for themselves.
Stella said pro cheerleaders differ from high school and college squads in that they’re not so much cheerleaders as they are entertainers.
“They’re not really leading the crowd,” he said.
As for the Patriots cheerleaders?
“I can tell you right now, I don’t know that I’ve seen any of them,” Stella said. “That’s not an insult. It’s just a matter of getting the publicity out in the arena.”
The Universal Cheerleaders Association’s Jim Lord said he wasn’t sure if any pro squad “can really come back in and capture that kind of attention” that the Cowboys cheerleaders or the Laker Girls once did.
“They’d have to do something from a PR standpoint that’s really different,” Lord said.
Melinda McGrath of Marlboro thinks being from New England helps keep her and her fellow Patriots cheerleaders more grounded than if they were working in L.A. or Miami.
“If we were in a different location, I think we’d be much different,” the 26-year-old line captain said.
Nevertheless, McGrath has gone on many of the USO trips and has been featured in Muscle & Fitness and Maxim magazine spreads, plus TV ads for ESPN and Visa.
She thinks ESPN should give the Pats cheerleaders their own TV show that reflects the true nature of their job, rather than the fluff and pageantry of the Cowboys girls.
“We still battle that image,” McGrath said. “They were the first, but they’re not No. 1.”

Related: Patriots cheerleaders home page.

Update! I got an e-mail today from Natalie Adams, associate professor at the University of Alabama and co-author of "Cheerleader! An American Icon." Too late to include in my story, but not too late to include her comments here...

"I'm not sure that any professional cheerleading squad could attain in the 21st century the popularity of the DCC in the 1970s since their popularity was based on their uniqueness. They were the first professional cheerleading squad. After their popularity, practically every football and basketball franchise followed suit and tried to introduce equally sexy cheerleaders. Some were more successful than others. Further, I'm not so sure professional football is as popular today as it was in the 1970s as it was then that it was making the transition from an athletic event to an entertainment spectacle. Cheerleaders were key to that transition. I think professional cheerleaders have to struggle much more today than they did in the 1970s to gain legitimacy since cheerleading itself has changed so much since the 1970s and "real" cheerleaders (meaning those associated with UCA, NCA, college squads that compete, high school squads, etc) would never recognize professional cheerleaders as cheerleaders. They are, they would argue, more akin to dancers, and some would say, Las Vegas dancers. This is changing as some professional squads (such as the Tennessee Titans) are going coed and looking more like the collegiate squads in their building, stunting, tumbling, etc. In short, I think the New England Patriot cheerleaders may be able to be ambassadors for their particular local community and, perhaps, get some recognition at that level, but attaining the status, visibility, and iconic power of the DCC in the 1970s is not likely going to happen in today's climate."