By Deirdre Spilman
Opinion Editor
I am by no means a football fan. I do not even pretend to know what’s going on when people talk about it. Up until a few days ago, I didn’t even know who Ray Lewis was.
Even though I may not appreciate the sport as much as some die-hard fans out there do, I will most likely be tuning in to watch the Super Bowl this coming Sunday.
The Super Bowl is not just a game, it’s an event. It is riddled with celebrity performances, spectacular commercials and not to mention a pretty competitive championship football game.
Football players sometimes wait their whole careers to be part of such a momentous event. The same goes for cheerleaders, although when it comes to that sport the Super Bowl is much more exclusive. Just ask 23-year-old Baltimore Ravens cheerleader, Courtney Lenz.
She is one of the 28 Ravens’ cheerleaders did not make the Super Bowl team. She wasn’t even given the chance to support the team in New Orleans and believes that it is completely unfair, according to a Jan. 30 Huffington Post article.
From the surface it would seem Lenz has acted petulant and dare I say spoiled, upon hearing the news that she did not make the Super Bowl squad. However, after learning the facts, I believe she was speaking out against an injustice that is keeping her from the biggest game of her career.
Lenz had made plans to retire at the end of this regular season to make it easier to handle her full time marketing job. She has found that her two-week notice is not being taken as well as she expected it would be.
“They’ve been really hard on me this year since I told them I was leaving,” Lenz said. She received an email last week with the names of the 32 cheerleaders who would join the team in New Orleans. “I was the only three-plus year veteran that [is] not going. I immediately thought it was a mistake,” she said, according a Jan. 30 ABC News article.
In most cases people are proud when they realize their friend is starting a new chapter in his or her life. I guess Lenz’s teammates don’t think the same way.
“Our selection process was based upon three criteria: seniority, performance ability and personal conduct throughout the season. As much as we would like to take the whole team, we are unable to do so, due to parameters set by the NFL,” said spokeswoman Heather Harness.
She definitely had seniority. If she lacked the other two qualities, then why not just fire her instead of stringing her along for the rest of the season and penalizing her when she quits?
It is absolutely unfair that Lenz is not going to be on the sidelines with her squad on Sunday. She has worked as hard as the other members and deserves to be rewarded for that.
Not letting her participate because she no longer has the time to cheer after this season is retaliation. Plain and simple.
