Missouri Basketball Players (Who Are Women) Beat Up Cheerleader (Who Isn't)

Dashiell Bennett|published: Mon 14th December, 11:30 2009

Much like their Kansas brethren, Missouri's athletic department is being torn asunder by intra-sports team strife. Only it's not the teams you usually expect, since we're talking about women's basketball and cheerleading. These kids do not compromise.

The Tigers' two leading scorers, seniors Amanda Hanneman and Jessra Johnson, were arrested early on Friday morning after a "dynamic disturbance" (file that little gem of a phrase away for later) at an off-campus apartment. The ladies were allegedly celebrating Missouri's big win over Texas Pan-American earlier that night, when one of the apartment's tenants—a 21-year-old male senior on the Mizzou cheerleading squad—complained that the gathering was getting a little too loud. He was rewarded for his troubles with a broken nose and a black eye.

Police described the dispute as more of a brawl, "with at least eight people" trying to break it up and/or get involved in the punching. Coach Cindy Stein has suspended her two players indefinitely, but even without their top two scorers—according to the Missouri Media Guide, Johnson's nickname is "The Enforcer"—the Tigers still managed to beat Murray State by 39 points on Sunday.

Meanwhile, what are we to make of this stunning campus role reversal? We're used to basketball, football and hockey players going to war over ladies and potluck dinners, but is America ready for vigilante female hoopsters? Or seeing abused cheerleaders of either sex? I can't tell if this story is subverting traditional gender stereotypes or cementing them.

Meanwhile, Twitter bravely soldiers on.