The Washington Football Team will not hire cheerleaders for the 2021 season and will instead opt for a dance squad that features both male and female performers, USA Today reported Tuesday.
A team adviser told the newspaper that the move is part of its efforts to build a more inclusive organization.
“We want to be more inclusive, so we are going to invite a coed entity [to audition],” Petra Pope told USA Today. “We’re able to do more things with the strength of a male, and lifts, so that’s changed a great deal. The inclusivity, strength and interest of choreography has changed.”
The new dance squad will focus on individuals who show a “skillset of being super athletic, which is what we’re really honing in on,” Pope added.
The team will also end the practice of selling calendars featuring cheerleaders or dancers, Pope said.
“At this point, as we re-imagine what this looks like, that’s not in the plans,” she told USA Today. “We’re going to move forward to a more modern entity, and that more than likely will not be a part of it.
“Right now we’re thinking modern, modern franchise. A calendar is not a part of that process,” Pope said.
The change comes in the wake of multiple scandals the organization has weathered in recent months.
The team has faced past controversies over the racial imagery in its former name as well as a report from The Washington Post last fall that accused staffers of circulating an “outtakes” video of the team’s cheerleaders in which their breasts are exposed without the women’s consent.
More than a dozen women who worked for the team in various roles also accused a number of male staffers of sexual harassment or verbal abuse last year, while alleging that owner Dan Snyder was aware of the situation.