Sidelined (Galen Summer, 2018):USA

Reviewed by: Matthew Dagenais, AFI Film Festival, Hollywood, CA

Sidelined; a non-fiction documentary about the creation and evolution of cheerleaders in sports entertainment. Mainly following one cheerleading squad in particular, the very first cheerleading squad in the NFL, the Chargettes, the official cheerleading squad of the NFL team, the San Diego Chargers made up of thirteen beautiful, fit, and athletic women this squad would revolutionize the entertainment industry in sports.

The art of cheerleading was viewed in many different ways, many women claimed that the girls were getting exploited for profit and just plain used for their looks and it was even called “embarrassing” and disgusting by some.  However for the male viewers of the NFL they loved the cheerleaders routines/dances they would preform in-between plays or when their was a time-out.  The league encouraged teams to put together cheerleading squads as well because their rating were skyrocketing through the roof. There was a big question the NFL had, What would the audience watch between plays?  One man said, “Linesmen’s asses, or beautiful young girls dancing”.  It was hard to argue that and resulted in many NFL teams starting to recruit cheerleading squads.  Today every NFL team, and almost every sports team has a squad of cheerleaders of some sorts. Interestingly enough in 1978 the Dallas Cowboys football squad hosted their first annual cheerleading tryouts in which 800 women tried out for.  The following year in 1979, 8000 women showed up to try out.

Although the community had very widespread views about the cheerleaders, they themselves loved what they did and took a lot of pride in it.  The Chargettes squad describes the amount of work that went into being a Chargette.  Were talking long practices that would extent up to over five hours, complicated and difficult routines that required coordination, strength and memorization, and they had to keep themselves looking the best they could they had to stay in shape.  It is truly amazing because these women did all of this with NO SALARY AT ALL.  Let me say that again just so it really sinks in how crazy this is; they got paid nothing to work for their NFL teams. But they loved what they did so they accommodated for it. They all worked separate jobs to pay their bills, some for them had children or parents to look after but they made it work and all helped each other along the way.  The girls describe their cheerleading squad as a true sisterhood.

In a turn of events for the girls lives they were almost set up in a way.  Because they were not being paid anything by their NFL teams they were all living very low income lives which can be very tough.  A photographer by the name of Jeff Cohen approached the Chargers NFL squad and offered their cheerleading squad an opportunity to earn some cash for a photoshoot.  The Chargers gave him the contact information of the Chargettes Captain.  They all showed up to a photoshoot, with very little knowledge of what they were getting into they were told they would be posing for the legendary Playboy Magazine.  The girls were told to pose and playboy snapped photos of them, then they were given a note with a number on it of how much they would get paid to pose nude for the magazine.  In a very desperate situation one of the Chargettes members took the offer and posed topless for Playboy Magazine.  When the issue of the magazine came out a few months later the Chargettes squad was fired from their positions and ridiculed by the public.  Quick to respond the cheerleaders banded together from all over and clashed head to head with the NFL about unfair treatment and not having a salary.  Too this day cheerleaders continue to preform all over areas for many different sports and now make a genuine salary and are widely respected by many.  Forever and always the Chargettes sisterhood stuck together and had a great run in their short lived NFL careers.