Caitlin Davis, the 19-year-old Patriots cheerleader who was featured in this Deadspin item, photographed with a Sharpie in hand, posing over a passed out individual covered in penis drawings was dismissed from pompom duties effective yesterday, according to the Boston Herald. The paper insinuates the firing wasn't due to the crude dong scribbles, but because some of the markings contained Anti-Semitic imagery and language:
Caitlin Davis and an unidentified pal appear to be writing on the unconscious prank victim and the words "penis," ‘I'm a Jew' and a pair of swastikas are clearly visible on his face, neck, arms and torso....[T]eam owners Bob and Myra Kraft are huge in the Anti-Defamation League and, while Caitlin might have been given a pass on the penises, the swastikas were a no-go.
I had many not-so-pleasant email conversations with Ms. Davis yesterday regarding this post, however she did insist that photos featured were taken out of context and claims she didn't draw anything on the individual. Obviously, she was concerned for her part-time job as a Pats cheerleader and the subsequent embarrassment that comes with having those pictures splashed across the internet. It's unfortunate that this did happen to Caitlin and I do think the Patriots are being a little oversensitive, especially if she wasn't the person who penis-and-swastika'd up the poor kid's body. But...as we've seen many, many, many times before, professional (and college) sports organizations are cracking down on how their cheerleader squads' public image. To sum up: Caitlin Davis was just being a 19-year-old — albeit one who works for one of the most popular and successful sports franchises in the world — and is most likely not an Anti-Semite or a horrible human being. Caitlin has sworn vengeance against Deadspin — as did her equally unhappy boyfriend, who is currently deployed in the military — so we'll see if this story takes an even stranger turn that it already has in the coming months. Hope not. Caitlin Davis' Life Is Not So Cheery Now [BH]