The Washington Redskins cheerleaders and a trip from hell

soxhop411

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snyder has some explaining to do

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/sports/redskins-cheerleaders-nfl.html?smid=tw-nytsports&smtyp=cur

"When the Washington Redskins took their cheerleading squad to Costa Rica in 2013...Redskins officials collected their passports upon arrival at the resort, depriving them of their official identification.”
Redskins cheerleaders say they were required to go to a Costa Rica nightclub with male sponsors, who earlier watched a topless photo shoot. "We weren’t asked, we were told."
Nine Redskins cheerleaders were told they had an evening assignment. Some of the male sponsors picked them to be personal escorts at a nightclub.

“So get back to your room and get ready,” the director told them. Several of them began to cry
Much more at the link.
 

soxhop411

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I missed this specific part.

For the photo shoot, at the adults-only Occidental Grand Papagayo resort on Culebra Bay, some of the cheerleaders said they were required to be topless, though the photographs used for the calendar would not show nudity. Others wore nothing but body paint. Given the resort’s secluded setting, such revealing poses would not have been a concern for the women — except that the Redskins had invited spectators.

A contingent of sponsors and FedExField suite holders — all men — were granted up-close access to the photo shoots.
 

jose melendez

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Yeah, that sound like human trafficking to me.

You take employees out of the country, seize their passports and make them pose topless and go to a night club with male guests, all while not paying them?

We can debate whether Bob Kraft is a good person, but Dan Snyder, decidedly, is not.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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The more I hear about the NFL, the more I wonder why I support it.

Fuck this league, I hope it burns.
 

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jose melendez

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The more I think about this, the more pissed off I am. I really, really enjoy football, but the extent to which the league, far beyond all others, is a bunch of rich assholes peddling in human misery is hard to overstate. This is about a million times worse than what got Donald Sterling pushed out. Sterling was a terrible racist, with a long and shameful history, but being an obvious racist is, honestly, not half as bad as trafficking in human beings.

IANAL but I would bet pretty heavily that this violates a bunch of federal anti-trafficking laws.
 

gtmtnbiker

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for which the cheerleaders were paid nothing beyond transportation costs, meals and lodging,
The sad part is that the cheerleaders did not get paid for doing the trip.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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The more I think about this, the more pissed off I am. I really, really enjoy football, but the extent to which the league, far beyond all others, is a bunch of rich assholes peddling in human misery is hard to overstate. This is about a million times worse than what got Donald Sterling pushed out. Sterling was a terrible racist, with a long and shameful history, but being an obvious racist is, honestly, not half as bad as trafficking in human beings.

IANAL but I would bet pretty heavily that this violates a bunch of federal anti-trafficking laws.
I'm sure our president will get right on this.

The problem is is that this will get political, get all muddied up ("Them girls shoulda known what they wuz gettin' into by goin' down there. It's just common sense!") and turn into a big clusterfuck (just like everything else) and then it will blow over and in about five years, someone will say, "Hey remember that time that a bunch of cheerleaders were pimped out and no one did anything about it? That was crazy, right?" We'll agree and go back to doing what we were doing.
 

jose melendez

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I'm sure our president will get right on this.

The problem is is that this will get political, get all muddied up ("Them girls shoulda known what they wuz gettin' into by goin' down there. It's just common sense!") and turn into a big clusterfuck (just like everything else) and then it will blow over and in about five years, someone will say, "Hey remember that time that a bunch of cheerleaders were pimped out and no one did anything about it? That was crazy, right?" We'll agree and go back to doing what we were doing.
You know, if the rightists really were boycotting the NFL over Kapernick, as opposed to just saying they were, I might have to take a harder look at myself. Actually people are getting used and abused, and I keep right on watching.
 

trekfan55

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This article basically made me lose my lunch. Will Ginger do something about it? Will anyone even start to ask questions?

This IMO is borderline criminal and should be treated as such. Even if no one was expected or coerced to participate in sexual activities, just the fact that:

a. They weren't paid except for lodging and meals.
b. They had to basically get naked in front of strangers (not photographers)
c. They were expected to wear bikinis and heels all day
d. They were expected to escort gentlemen sponsors to a dark night club on an exclusive party
e. Their passports were taken from them

If any of this is true then a full inquiry must be made by someone in the Justice Department (I know, I am laughing a lot while typing this).

And there's more in the article. Like the whole "hot/not" section.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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You know, if the rightists really were boycotting the NFL over Kapernick, as opposed to just saying they were, I might have to take a harder look at myself. Actually people are getting used and abused, and I keep right on watching.
I keep saying that as soon as the Patriots start sucking (like when Belichick and Brady retire), I'm going to be done with the NFL (I know, it's a principled stance that I'm taking). But this might be it for me. Between this, CTEs, the constant melodrama of every little thing that happens in the offseason ("Holy shit you guys, Tom Brady said, he'd take the fifth! WTF??"), the constant rule changes, the excruciating long games, the bullshit on-field reviews, the owners being out-and-out greedy assholes, the Kapernick situation and the weekly military pandering; I don't know why I waste the few perfectly decent Sundays in the fall watching the Pats. Maybe I won't anymore.

I wouldn’t be shocked if this does cause the NFL to force him to sell.
HA! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Sure. The NFL will force one of their own to sell. If the NFL owners gave a shit about morality, virtue or what people thought of them; then Jerry Jones would be on his ass years ago. Same with Al Davis. These guys are all scumbags, each one worse than the next.
 

soxhop411

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I keep saying that as soon as the Patriots start sucking (like when Belichick and Brady retire), I'm going to be done with the NFL (I know, it's a principled stance that I'm taking). But this might be it for me. Between this, CTEs, the constant melodrama of every little thing that happens in the offseason ("Holy shit you guys, Tom Brady said, he'd take the fifth! WTF??"), the constant rule changes, the excruciating long games, the bullshit on-field reviews, the owners being out-and-out greedy assholes, the Kapernick situation and the weekly military pandering; I don't know why I waste the few perfectly decent Sundays in the fall watching the Pats. Maybe I won't anymore.



HA! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Sure. The NFL will force one of their own to sell. If the NFL owners gave a shit about morality, virtue or what people thought of them; then Jerry Jones would be on his ass years ago. Same with Al Davis. These guys are all scumbags, each one worse than the next.
The only reason the NBA forced sterling to sell is because the NBA was getting a shit load of bad press. Sterling should have been forced to sell the team years before they actually forced him to

If this follows the same route, the NFL would be stupid to try and sweep it under the rug.
 

Infield Infidel

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Aren't they making the Panthers owner sell?

And Stern turned a blind eye to Sterling engaging in housing discrimination. I wonder if an owner did that now if they would be in more trouble.
 

Oil Can Dan

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I keep saying that as soon as the Patriots start sucking (like when Belichick and Brady retire), I'm going to be done with the NFL (I know, it's a principled stance that I'm taking). But this might be it for me. Between this, CTEs, the constant melodrama of every little thing that happens in the offseason ("Holy shit you guys, Tom Brady said, he'd take the fifth! WTF??"), the constant rule changes, the excruciating long games, the bullshit on-field reviews, the owners being out-and-out greedy assholes, the Kapernick situation and the weekly military pandering; I don't know why I waste the few perfectly decent Sundays in the fall watching the Pats. Maybe I won't anymore.



HA! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Sure. The NFL will force one of their own to sell. If the NFL owners gave a shit about morality, virtue or what people thought of them; then Jerry Jones would be on his ass years ago. Same with Al Davis. These guys are all scumbags, each one worse than the next.
What about Jerry Richardson? Do you think he'd be selling if not for his scandal? I don't.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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The only reason the NBA forced sterling to sell is because the NBA was getting a shit load of bad press. Sterling should have been forced to sell the team years before they actually forced him to

If this follows the same route, the NFL would be stupid to try and sweep it under the rug.
I hope you're right, but the NFL has a bigger stranglehold on the media than the NBA does. There is legitimate evidence that their game actually does irreversible brain damage and in some instances is pretty much directly responsible for former players taking their own lives. No real NFL journalist holds the league's feet to the fire (like Peter King, for instance). They aren't going to do a 180 because a bunch of cheerleaders were in an incredibly shitty position.

They should. They definitely should, but they won't. I mean, who would Peter King eat Skyline Chili with, if he gets Roger angry?

What about Jerry Richardson? Do you think he'd be selling if not for his scandal? I don't.
I don't know. I hope that you're right, but I'm not going to hold my breath for the NFL's owners to do the right thing.
 

OnWisc

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I loathe the NFL and I if I don't loathe the owners themselves, at the very least I hate pretty much everything they stand for. That said, for me the issue here isn't as much Snyder- who does bear ultimate responsibility for this- as much as the legion of Redskin execs and personnel who helped orchestrate this entire thing ("uh, we took their passports for security reasons...to make sure none got stolen!") and probably aren't that different from the armies of emotionally adolescent morons that occupy many places within the NFL hierarchy, including the king buffoon himself.

I'll still watch Brady and Bill but if Option B were to watch this whole league implode on itself and leave this smug crew of asshole owners without their treasured franchises, I'd take option B 100 times out of 100.
 

soxhop411

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Looks like Snyder could use a "fixer". I wonder if anyone in Washington could hook him up. On a more serious note how does something like this stay quiet for 5 years? Cheerleaders don't make a Hell of a lot of money. Wouldn't it be easy for some of them to walk away from it?
The article says they signed NDA/ confidentiality agreements

This account of the Redskins’ calendar shoot at the Occidental Grand Papagayo is based on interviews with five cheerleaders who were involved, and many details were corroborated with others who heard descriptions of the trip at the time. The cheerleaders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were required to sign confidentiality agreements when they joined the team.
 

trekfan55

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Please let this have more coverage. In the time of the #metoo movement and all the good it is doing, this issue needs to be in the forefront. There comes a point where the mighty NFL does not intimidate the news media from letting something as despicable as this see the light of day. I want to see this covered everywhere. Can anyone at SOSH help?
 

joe dokes

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I wouldn’t be shocked if this does cause the NFL to force him to sell.
Until the league figures out that treating women like garbage is a good way to bring back the fans who were turned off by the scary kneeling Negroes.
 

SMU_Sox

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Isn't an NDA to something that violates your human rights void? I mean doesn't that go against public policy?
 

AbbyNoho

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Please let this have more coverage. In the time of the #metoo movement and all the good it is doing, this issue needs to be in the forefront. There comes a point where the mighty NFL does not intimidate the news media from letting something as despicable as this see the light of day. I want to see this covered everywhere. Can anyone at SOSH help?
I posted it on Facebook so I feel like I've done a lot of good work here.
 

koufax32

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Victim blaming coming in 3...2..1...


When it comes I suspect it will be something like “these girls sign up for this when they agree to be eye candy. If they do calendar shoots and strut around advertising their goods like that they can’t be surprised when men act on that.”
 

soxhop411

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Victim blaming coming in 3...2..1...


When it comes I suspect it will be something like “these girls sign up for this when they agree to be eye candy. If they do calendar shoots and strut around advertising their goods like that they can’t be surprised when men act on that.”
It’s going to happen.
 

RIFan

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I wouldn’t be shocked if this does cause the NFL to force him to sell.
Only if they're willing to force 15 or so other owners to sell when it comes out that similar vile activities are going on with their cheerleading squads. Snyder is an odious character, but so are many (most) of the other owners. I've yet to hear of a team paying their cheerleaders a decent wage. I hope this story empowers other women to speak out on how they were treated and enough pressure builds to get the NFL to step up and force teams to both pay them what they deserve and treat them with dignity.
 

Ale Xander

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This is so revolting. I'm in the tims4wins category, other than maybe waiting for Gronk and Edelman to retire, with Brady, instead of BB.

I'll still admire the talents of players like Kamara and Michel, since they're so young, but I wont care about teams.

At least when I rooted for the Rod Rust Pats team, I didn't feel dirty.
 

Byrdbrain

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Victim blaming coming in 3...2..1...


When it comes I suspect it will be something like “these girls sign up for this when they agree to be eye candy. If they do calendar shoots and strut around advertising their goods like that they can’t be surprised when men act on that.”
You rang?

You got a couple details wrong but pretty much spot on.
 

Ale Xander

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You rang?

You got a couple details wrong but pretty much spot on.
Over-under on how many days it'll take her to says something like?

"In an intense and stressful moment, I allowed my emotions to get the best of me and said some insulting and regrettable things... I am so sorry for my actions and will learn from this mistake"
 

bigq

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At least when I rooted for the Rod Rust Pats team, I didn't feel dirty
Sadly so much of the bullshit that is going on now (concussions/CTE, objectifying and mistreating women, asshole owners, etc) was going on then as well. We simply know more now then we did then. It is increasingly difficult to be a fan of football and the NFL without willfully putting blinders on.
 

PC Drunken Friar

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Over-under on how many days it'll take her to says something like?

"In an intense and stressful moment, I allowed my emotions to get the best of me and said some insulting and regrettable things... I am so sorry for my actions and will learn from this mistake"
From Britt McHenry? Helllllll no
 

mauf

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I suspect we’ll look back on this story as an inflection point in terms of how NFL cheerleaders are treated. Which will cost the owners money. And they will get dragged through a bit of mud on their way to a place they should have gone voluntarily a long time ago. All of which will piss them off, so I won’t be surprised if management/ownership of the Indigenous Persons gets sanctioned somehow for allowing this incident to take place — but I’ll be shocked if Snyder is forced to sell the team, unless there’s another shoe to drop here.
 

koufax32

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You rang?

You got a couple details wrong but pretty much spot on.

Fool.

A quick google image search implies that she’s completely cool with people sexually harassing her via Twitter. Obviously not suggesting that but the hypocrisy is staggering.

And of course the best part is her saying that they need to get over something that is probably illegal. While we’re calling her a hypocrite I wonder if she ever opined on the slave labor being used to prepare Qatar for the WC in four years.

Honestly she’s one use of the word “Snowflakes” away from BINGO in Jackass Bingo.
 

Reverend

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I hope you're right, but the NFL has a bigger stranglehold on the media than the NBA does. There is legitimate evidence that their game actually does irreversible brain damage and in some instances is pretty much directly responsible for former players taking their own lives. No real NFL journalist holds the league's feet to the fire (like Peter King, for instance). They aren't going to do a 180 because a bunch of cheerleaders were in an incredibly shitty position.

They should. They definitely should, but they won't. I mean, who would Peter King eat Skyline Chili with, if he gets Roger angry?



I don't know. I hope that you're right, but I'm not going to hold my breath for the NFL's owners to do the right thing.
As to the bolded: And the lives of others. To say nothing of acts of violence that are as yet "invisible" because there is no event dramatic enough to make us aware of it.

I loathe the NFL and I if I don't loathe the owners themselves, at the very least I hate pretty much everything they stand for. That said, for me the issue here isn't as much Snyder- who does bear ultimate responsibility for this- as much as the legion of Redskin execs and personnel who helped orchestrate this entire thing ("uh, we took their passports for security reasons...to make sure none got stolen!") and probably aren't that different from the armies of emotionally adolescent morons that occupy many places within the NFL hierarchy, including the king buffoon himself.

I'll still watch Brady and Bill but if Option B were to watch this whole league implode on itself and leave this smug crew of asshole owners without their treasured franchises, I'd take option B 100 times out of 100.
"I'm a feminist."

Isn't an NDA to something that violates your human rights void? I mean doesn't that go against public policy?
If I'm not mistaken, any contract to conduct business that is illegal is automatically void. The question, then, would be if any laws were "technically" broken.

If not, we might need some new laws.

You rang?

You got a couple details wrong but pretty much spot on.
Even in the most intensive of capitalist arguments, it does seem like they should be compensated for behavior with prior informed consent ("notice" anyone?) of that to which they are contracting themselves.

So even this bullshit fails on its own terms. If you're going to argue that people can consent to being commodities, they should be compensated. This is America, goddammit.
 

trekfan55

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You rang?

You got a couple details wrong but pretty much spot on.
How disgusting. So now anyone who dances in public or decides it's ok to wear skimpy cheerleader outfits is a sex object?

I don't even know where to start on this one. Utter bullshit.
 

edoug

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Paging Mr. Avenatti on line 2. Wow a repulsive story coming out of the nation's capital an it doesn't involve you-know-who.
As to the bolded: And the lives of others. To say nothing of acts of violence that are as yet "invisible" because there is no event dramatic enough to make us aware of it.



"I'm a feminist."



If I'm not mistaken, any contract to conduct business that is illegal is automatically void. The question, then, would be if any laws were "technically" broken.

If not, we might need some new laws.



Even in the most intensive of capitalist arguments, it does seem like they should be compensated for behavior with prior informed consent ("notice" anyone?) of that to which they are contracting themselves.

So even this bullshit fails on its own terms. If you're going to argue that people can consent to being commodities, they should be compensated. This is America, goddammit.
Even if they were paid, they definitely weren't paid for what was planned for them.
 

edoug

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Read my post again. But yes, I quite agree.
Yeah I was repeating what you wrote but I was growing madder at the whole thing and got a little lost. I apologize because it wasn't my intent that you condoned anything that Snyder and friends did.
 
Last edited:

Reverend

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Yeah kind of repeating what you wrote but I was growing madder at the whole thing and got a little lost. I apologize because it wasn't my intent that you condoned anything that Snyder and friends did.
Word. And I totally get it.
 

Rough Carrigan

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Without some evidence of Snyder at least knowing about what was going on how is he gonna be forced out because of that? The article didn't make any representation to that effect. An underling falls on his sword and six months later Snyder buys the underling's father's bagel shop for $4 million.
 

edoug

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Without some evidence of Snyder at least knowing about what was going on how is he gonna be forced out because of that? The article didn't make any representation to that effect. An underling falls on his sword and six months later Snyder buys the underling's father's bagel shop for $4 million.
Sounds about right.
Word. And I totally get it.
Cool, this place is the anti-Facebook for me. I believe there is one trait that SOSH members share is that we're all nuts. And we also are good and caring people. This is my safe haven. So I have no intentions of pissing off anyone here.
 

Blacken

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This is so revolting. I'm in the tims4wins category, other than maybe waiting for Gronk and Edelman to retire, with Brady, instead of BB.
You could also just...stop.

I mean,...the NFL treats you like shit, treats its employees like shit, and the city-ravaging stadium finance racket has within a rounding error of zero positive externalities to any city or municipality it touches.

It makes things bad.

It makes places bad.

It makes people bad.

You can just...fuckin'...stop.

The excuses are mystifying, and they are excuses and you won't stop when Tom Brady retires or whatever because it'll be easy to find another excuse then in order to keep watching that a TV show you occasionally pay too much money to go watch live while trying to convince yourself that You Care but You Just Don't Care Enough Quite Yet.

But you really can just...stop. And people should, and you should. Because the NFL is bad.
 

veritas

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Sounds about right.

Cool, this place is the anti-Facebook for me. I believe there is one trait that SOSH members share is that we're all nuts. And we also are good and caring people. This is my safe haven. So I have no intentions of pissing off anyone here.
Are you aware of the V&N forum? But yeah as far as social platforms go, I agree the discourse here is as good as it gets. I saw one person admit they were wrong about something fairly inconsequential on facebook today and got a bazillion likes and replies telling them how brave they were. Like it wasn't something normal and decent people do every day in real life.

This story is just horrifying though. People like Britt, how do you even argue/respond to that? They clearly have no sense of empathy towards other human beings. Burn down that franchise and the whole NFL. Ditto to everything Blacken said