Bailey Davis, a former New Orleans Saints cheerleader, is reportedly suing the team for discrimination. Davis claims she was fired for posting a picture of herself in a bathing suit.
Davis, who cheered for the New Orleans Saints for three years, says the team claimed she had violated their code of conduct by of appearing “nude, semi-nude or in lingerie and attending a party with the franchise’s football players.”
However, Davis denies breaching any team protocols and has now filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a result of her dismissal.
According to the New York Times, the photograph in question appeared on the cheerleader’s Instagram page in January 2018 and she was fired four days later.
via New York Times:
Davis has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces civil rights laws. The complaint accuses the Saints of having two sets of rules — one for the team’s cheerleaders, who are all women, and another for its players. The complaint, which asserts that the rules in New Orleans reflect outdated views of women, follows a number of gender-related struggles in the N.F.L. over domestic violence and sexual harassment among players and league employees.
According to the Saints’ handbook for cheerleaders, as well as internal emails and text messages reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with Davis, the Saints have an anti-fraternization policy that requires cheerleaders to avoid contact with players, in person or online, even though players are not penalized for pursuing such engagement with cheerleaders. The cheerleaders must block players from following them on social media and cannot post photos of themselves in Saints gear, denying them the chance to market themselves. The players are not required to do any of these things.
The article by the New York Times dives deeper into the Saints’ code of conduct for their cheerleading team. One example of the Saints’ bizarre rules is that despite being employed by the team, cheerleaders are not allowed to wear the franchise’s merchandise.
Davis said she filed her discrimination case because wants to help other cheerleaders by forcing the team to change their discriminatory rules.
