Cheerleader Exploitation? Judge for Yourself!

Cheerleader Exploitation: Cheer-babes dancing in short skirts, or posing for swimsuit calendars, is not exploitation. After all, you're supposed to look at the cheerleaders! Professional athletics is foremost a form of entertainment, and the scantily-clad dancing girl has a long history as integral to entertainment in theatrical arts as well as sport.

It is, however, objectionable if everyone involved in an NFL contest is making buckets of money, except for the cheerleaders. That's the case, and that is a form of exploitation. The NFL will have about $8 billion in revenue this season, and Green Bay, the one team that discloses financial information (the Packers are publicly owned), showed a profit of $20 million last year. There's plenty of money in professional football. But only crumbs go to the cheerleaders. NFL teams are believed to pay cheerleaders approximately $100 per game. (Several teams used to post cheerleader audition FAQs on their Web sites that included such info.) Some throw in two game tickets. Don't spend it all in the same place!

Cheerleader squads practice twice a week, and in most cases, cheerleaders are not paid for practicing. Some are charged to audition. They make unpaid charity appearances. In order to become cheerleaders, they sign away "subsidiary rights" to their images -- use in advertising, on swimsuit calendars and so on. Being a NFL cheerleader is glamorous and can entail exciting travel. Many women who take up this very time-consuming hobby would rather be cheerleaders receiving only token pay than not be cheerleaders. But that should not be the choice. "Do it cheap or we'll find someone else who will" is manipulation. Cheerleaders are professional performers and deserve decent pay.

This month, prominent television ads have run for NFL Sunday Ticket, the league's premium package. In the foreground Peyton Manning talks, while NFL cheerleaders from the Broncos, Cowboys and other teams dance in the background. The joke of the ad is that Manning thinks the screen is showing a game, but actually, what everyone really wants is to look at the cheerleaders. Manning is receiving a hefty endorsement fee for appearing in the ad. Several of the cheerleaders shown in the ad, especially from the Cowboys, can be identified as individuals. Are they also receiving endorsement fees?

I asked DirecTV, which hired Manning for this ad. Spokeswoman Jade Ekstedt told me the company's licensing agreement with the NFL includes the right to use cheerleader images in promotion. That is, DirecTV has already paid on its end; any cheerleaders' promotional fees must come from the league or the teams. So are there such fees? "I recommend that you speak directly to the NFL regarding how the NFL or the individual teams determine compensation for cheerleaders," Ekstedt said. So I asked the NFL. Spokesman Brian McCarthy told me to call DirecTV. Then I asked the Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple. He told me, "You'd probably need to inquire with the NFL or DirecTV on that." I asked Dalrymple to confirm or deny that the cheerleaders did not receive endorsement fees; he replied, "As a club policy we do not disclose details of commercial endorsements involving members of the organization." In no case did I inquire about how much anyone involved might be receiving. I asked only whether NFL cheerleaders do or do not receive endorsement income when their images are used in advertising. The league, the team involved and the advertiser all would not answer. You'd think if the answer was yes, they'd be happy to say that.

The current Sunday Ticket ads are hardly the only ones in which cheerleader images are used, and likely without pay to the cheerleader -- I cite this ad simply because it's the current example. Peyton Manning's sure getting a fee: In almost all cases that an NFL player or coach's image is used in advertising, even if the image is from stock footage, he gets a fee. The legal presumption is usually that any person whose identity can be determined must be paid to have his or her image used in advertising, since use of a person's image implies endorsement of the product. Recently Woody Allen sued a company that used his likeness in an ad without conferring a fee; the company settled with Allen for $5 million.

For an $8 billion enterprise to pay cheerleaders $100 a game, then use their images in national advertising without further pay, ought to embarrass the NFL. True, players' contracts include a clause that signs away some of their rights to their images under some circumstances. But players receive an average of $1.9 million per year. What they're signing is a good deal. What the cheerleaders are signing is exploitation.

This article is from ESPN's Tuesday Morning Quarterback by Gregg Easterbrook