In the NFL there are seven teams which do not have cheerleaders. The Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Chargers, New York Giants, and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Cheerleading squads in the NFL have been decreasing in recent years.
There have been several different reasons why teams do not use cheerleaders when playing on Sundays.
Some teams have struggled with lawsuits from the cheerleaders due to lack of fair pay. Other teams like the Browns are a little more old school and simply do not like having cheerleaders at their games.
Some other football teams like the Steelers had issues based on the outfits the cheerleaders wanted to wear. In the end, cheerleaders are employees of the team just like the players.
For many teams, they ran into issues with these employees that made resulted in removing them from the team entirely.
Lack of pay for cheerleaders
One of the biggest issues with cheerleaders is how much they are paid. It is no secret that being an NFL cheerleader is quite an impressive accomplishment.
The trouble is so many people want this position they are willing to do it for little pay. The owners of NFL teams know this and paid their cheerleaders based on the supply of people willing to do the job.
This meant that some cheerleaders were allegedly being paid so little it ended up being below minimum wage.
This has led to several lawsuits across the NFL which have resulted in several wins for the cheerleaders.
Unfortunately for some teams like the Buffalo Bills, this meant it was time to get rid of cheerleading at their home games. When watching football on television you’ll find you will only see the cheerleaders for about five seconds per game.
The value they bring to the team is not always enough to justify paying for the whole squad to work each game.
This is why some teams have decided to get rid of cheerleaders based on how much they cost.
Old fashioned teams
Some teams like the Cleveland Browns simply don’t have cheerleaders as they did not want them.
There was no scandal or situation that led to getting rid of the cheerleaders they simply didn’t find them necessary.
Keep in mind the Browns are a very old-school team who to this day still do not place a logo on their helmet.
The Browns experimented with cheerleaders way back in the 1970’s. Their cheer squad were high school girls who were not being paid for the gig.
These cheerleaders only last a single year before they were disbanded. Due to the cold weather, these girls had to wear large orange turtle necks when cheering.
This did not go over very well as the wife of the Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell stated that they looked ridiculous stating their uniforms looked like pyjamas.
Disagreements on clothing
One interesting reason that NFL teams do not have cheerleaders is due to disagreements on the cheerleading uniform.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had a cheerleading team in the 1960’s but were disbanded after eight years. The Steelers cheerleaders came from a local junior college that did not have a football team.
The school used the Stellers as their “adopted team” and would cheer at their home games.
Ultimately the cheerleaders went to the team’s owner and asked if they could change their uniforms to something more daring.
The owner did not like this idea very much and decided to fire the cheerleaders altogether.
Since this point the Pittsburgh Steelers have not had cheerleaders at their football games.
