{"id":15787,"date":"2018-05-03T19:47:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2018\/05\/03\/washingtons-nfl-cheerleaders-say-they-had-to-pose-topless-as-vips-watched\/"},"modified":"2018-05-03T19:47:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:47:00","slug":"washingtons-nfl-cheerleaders-say-they-had-to-pose-topless-as-vips-watched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/washingtons-nfl-cheerleaders-say-they-had-to-pose-topless-as-vips-watched\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington's NFL Cheerleaders Say They Had To Pose Topless As VIPs Watched"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bill Chappell<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Washington’s football team is facing allegations from its cheerleaders about the way they were treated on a 2013 trip to Costa Rica. Here, the squad warms up before an NFL preseason game in 2014.<\/p>\n

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Alex Brandon\/AP<\/p>\n

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Alex Brandon\/AP<\/p>\n

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A “mandatory” trip to a nightclub where they were told to escort wealthy sponsors. A topless photo shoot that male spectators were invited to attend. Those are two of the main allegations made by cheerleaders from Washington’s NFL team about a 2013 trip to Costa Rica to photograph the squad’s swimsuit calendar.<\/p>\n

The allegations described in a New York Times story<\/a> stem from a trip to the Occidental Grand Papagayo, an adults-only resort on Culebra Bay, on Costa Rica’s west coast.<\/p>\n

Citing interviews with five cheerleaders who were there, the Times<\/em>‘ Juliet Macur reports that the women were unhappy with their lack of privacy \u2014 and worried that the team wasn’t concerned enough with their safety. Also unsettling: They said the team collected their passports early in the week-long trip.<\/p>\n

The team told the Times<\/em> that it normally collects passports on international trips as a matter of security.<\/p>\n

When it was time to take photographs for the risqu\u00e9 calendar \u2014 including ones that involved being topless \u2014 the cheerleaders said men who backed the team as either sponsors or stadium suite-holders were invited to watch the photo shoots up close.<\/p>\n

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Captain Susan’s shoot is underway! Thanks to @Dmilikah<\/a> swimwear for the swimsuit! #WRCCalendarShoot<\/a>pic.twitter.com\/KUUoVle3ux<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Redskins Cheerleaders (@1stLadiesOfFB) May 30, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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“At one of my friend’s shoots, we were basically standing around her like a human barricade because she was basically naked, so we could keep the guys from seeing her,” one cheerleader told Macur. “I was getting so angry that the guys on the trip were skeezing around in the background.”<\/p>\n