NFL Cheerleaders | Twelve NFL Cheerleaders Featured in SI’s Swimsuit Issue

Twelve NFL Cheerleaders Featured in SI’s Swimsuit Issue

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Cheerleader swimsuitAs Sports Illustrated’s 44th annual swimsuit edition hits the newsstands, so do twelve representatives of cheer squads from across the NFL. Eleven teams are represented in all, as the Houston Texans actually had a pair of twins on display - twins as in siblings - in Marissa and Larissa Coy of nearby Baytown, TX.

Even more interesting is how the debate about the swimsuit issue has evolved over the years. When it first launched in 1964, the question was one of taste, and whether or not a sports magazine so prominently featuring scantly-clad models was really acting in the interests of their readers (which it was) and the type of legitimate sports journalism Sports Illustrated prided itself on (which it wasn’t).

The great irony was that with the rise of feminism in America, the girls of the swimsuit issue were at once pariahs and heroes. They were derided by some for posing, accused of self-exploitation and setting back the cause of womandom several decades at a time, yet they were revered by others as bold and brave women, not afraid of their bodies and not afraid to celebrate beauty. That legions of men agreed with the latter didn’t hurt, either: the swimsuit issue was, for decades, SI’s biggest-selling issue of the year.

Of course, as time went on and the swimsuit issue just became part of the cultural background noise, the tremendous rise of internet publishing and various men’s magazine devoted to page after page of beautiful women in various states of dress, it became harder and harder to see what the fuss ever was in the first place. The SI ladies’ swimsuits may get slightly racier with each passing year, but it all looks tame considering what’s on the cover of even more hardcore publications like Maxim, FHM, Stuff, and the like (and that’s only counting the, shall we say, “mainstream” men’s magazines).

So with that, the new edition is out. Love it or hate it, the girls look great. Congratulations to each of them.

Tags: nfl cheerleader, nfl cheerleading, cheerleading

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Comments

One Response to “Twelve NFL Cheerleaders Featured in SI’s Swimsuit Issue”

  1. Mindy Borders on September 7th, 2008 7:03 pm

    I want to know as a former middle school and High school cheerleader, why are NFL cheerleaders NOT really cheerleaders? They are more like a Dance Team!!
    Thanks

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