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Talk about a setup for satire: The Lions will have their own cheerleaders for the first time this fall.
The break from tradition shows the team's "commitment to improving the Detroit Lions fan experience on and off the field," president Rod Wood says in a statement, print and broadcast media report.
Detroit is one of six NFL cities without cheerleaders, a choice the team clung to adamantly when William Clay Ford was owner. His widow, Martha Ford, now holds the reins and evidently OK'd bringing on the babes.
Dave Birkett posts details at the Free Press:
The Lions will hold auditions beginning June 25 at Ford Field, with callbacks through that weekend. A training camp for finalists will be in mid-July.
Rebecca Girard-Smoker, who spent 10 seasons as the dance team director for the Detroit Pistons, will coach the Lions' cheerleaders.
Female applicants who're at least 18 and have a high school diploma or GED can register here and will pay a $25 fee. A one-page application is here. (Sorry, guys -- tryouts are closed to spectators.)
Journalists aren't the only ones posting about the move by a team with a 7-9 record last season. Fans (a word that applies loosely in some cases) react pretty much as you'd expect to this effort to upgrade the "fan experience on and off the field."
Chris Bondi , a Detroit News reader from Sterling Heights, posts: "They've had women dancing on the field for decades."
Even News managing editor has a bit of fun, tweeting:
I mean, it's clearly not going to help the Lions any. https://t.co/IyANCzh19q
— Gary Miles (@GaryMiles_DN) June 13, 2016
A few fans do . . . ahem . . . cheer the news. Here are more colorful, witty responses from others on social media and at The News and Freep sites:
► Why would you subject these poor young women to this cruel and unusual punishment of watching this team every week? -- Ray Barnhart, Ypsilanti
Imagine going to BAD restaurant for 58 years. They announce they are hiring a hot hostess. Not changing the food. And you keep dining there.
— Jeff Moss (@JeffMossDSR) June 13, 2016
► Now if they would only bring in a football team. -- Brian Zientak
@971theticketxyt can they add a playoff win instead?
— Mark Green (@votemarkgreen) June 13, 2016
► We'll have something worth watching now. -- Ed Konefe, Allen Park
@971theticketxyt Talk about "lipstick in a pig"? No NFL title in 59 years, cheerleaders'll do nothing to end that drought.#FordFamilyFailure
— FieldDiamond (@FieldDiamond) June 13, 2016
► About time. Now add an experienced corner back. -- Ky'am Malik, Detroit
Maybe they can play defense too. https://t.co/xDFnQTqrBQ
— Jahshua Smith (@JahshuaSmith) June 13, 2016
► If we had an offensive line that could pass protect and run block, that in itself would offer more than enough on field entertainment. -- Rokell Colvin
That's why we weren't winning Super Bowls. We should've learned from the 90's Cowboys that we needed #Cheerleaders https://t.co/NQvj3c1NOx
— Chow Down Detroit™ (@ChowDownDetroit) June 13, 2016
► That's it, that's what the Lions have been missing. That is what has kept from the Super Bowl all these years! -- Robert Reneker Jr.
► If you can't win on the field, gotta provide entertainment for the fans in some other manner. -- Kaeff Holt
► Oh, thank God. Every morning I woke up thinking the world would be a better place if the Detroit Lions would just get cheerleaders. -- Deanna Danford
► The Lions already have the best cheerleaders in the NFL - their LOYAL FANS who love them and stick with them year after year through it all and still believe in them. -- Jennifer Brown
