Does The World Need Cheerleaders?

The answer, of course, is "Yes." But why should that be so? Do we really need leaders to organize our cheers? Do basket tosses contribute to victory? Or is it that you can see ladies' underwear without being consider pervy?

Cheerleading has become completely incidental to the sports they were originally intended to support. If fact, it's mostly just an excuse for female daredevils to risk their necks for thrills and chills. It's by far the most dangerous sport for young women—even though the NCAA doesn't consider it a sport—so the Wall Street Journal wants to know what is the point of risking all these lives. (Dorks.)

Keep in mind—we're not talking about NFL cheerleaders, who are merely eye candy for the first 10 rows. What they do is unique and special, of course, but choreographed rumpshaking rarely breaks bones. We're talking about high school and college cheerleaders who continually up the ante on flips, dips and human stacking. It's crazy, irrelevant to the outcome of football and basketball games, yet somehow is absolutely necessary. No really cares about what cheerleaders are doing, but if you went to a college football game that didn't have them, wouldn't that be weird? Maybe you would forget to cheer. Then your team would lose. And it would be your fault.

So to answer your questions: Yes, there is no point. Just like every other sport.

What's the Point of Cheerleading? [WSJ]

Send an email to Dashiell Bennett, the author of this post, at dashiell@deadspin.com.

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