The Washington Football Team will replace its cheerleading squad with a dance team composed of men and women next season, multiple outlets have reported.
The team itself hasn鈥檛 released an official statement on the matter yet, but has retweeted several reports about the move, most prominently .
The newspaper reported that Petra Pope, who has managed the Laker Girls and the Knicks City Dancers as part of her 14 years in the NBA designing 鈥済ameday experiences,鈥� will direct the dance squad.
The team itself 聽鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to welcome famed NBA entertainment exec Petra Pope to the team! Petra will help us design and reimagine a unique gameday experience for our fans once we can all gather again at FedExField.鈥�
Pope told USA Today, 鈥�”We want to be more inclusive, so we are going to invite a coed entity (to audition). We鈥檙e able to do more things with the strength of a male, and lifts, so that鈥檚 changed a great deal. The inclusivity, strength and interest of choreography has changed.”
In 2018, several cheerleaders told they felt 鈥減imped out鈥� by the team on a photo shoot for a swimsuit calendar in Costa Rica, claiming they were forced to go topless in front of men who were season suite holders and sponsors and accompany sponsors to a nightclub. Some also claimed that outtakes of video clips of them undressed were made and circulated among team workers.
The team has denied that such videos existed, even though The Washington Post said it had seen them. A lawyer for the team and owner Daniel Snyder told USA TODAY Sports the matter “has been resolved.”
reported last month that the team had reached a settlement in the matter.
Pope told USA Today that there were no plans to make any more calendars.
