The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were scrambling Monday night to protect their reputation after racy photos featuring some of the team's former cheerleaders were posted on an Internet sports site.
The pictures show members of the Blue Lightning cheerleading squad -- which the football team insists are dated and do not include current members -- in various states of undress and sexually provocative poses.
Photo from website, altered for taste, believed to be of a former member of the Blue Lightning cheerleading squad.
In a number of the pictures, the women are posing with their blue, gold and white uniforms clearly on display.
Some of the pictures appeared on an American website on a posting titled: Oh Canada! CFL Cheerleader Shows More Than Her Patriotic Side. In one photo a cheerleader is mooning the camera with the Peace Tower of Parliament in Ottawa clearly in the background.
The emergence of the photos creates an embarrassment for the publicly owned team. Cheerleading coach Dena Clark promotes the Blue Lightning on the team's website as a group that leads, "young women on a path of positive thinking, healthy living and athletic training... helping the general public see these women as the multi-talented group they are instead of a series of body parts on display."
The pictures surfaced at a time when the team, projected by many pundits to go to the Grey Cup, is winless after three games and is mired in a public debate over whether tax money should be invested in a new stadium.
Arash Madani, spokesman for the Bombers, insisted Monday that the women in the pictures aren't part of this year's squad, adding they were on the Blue Lightning in "2005 at the latest."
He said the Blue Lightning shouldn't be judged by the actions of a small group of former members.
"Each member puts in countless hours of training, volunteering, mentoring, and making a positive impact in the community," he said. "A small number of isolated photos from a member without any affiliation to the organization for quite some time is not a reflection of what the Blue Lightning team or the franchise is about."
Madani said in an e-mail statement the club was only made aware of the photos Monday morning and "the matter has been addressed with the organization, including the Blue Lightning."
However, he refused to elaborate on what action had been taken, if any, during a short telephone interview.
Natalie Marmus, a former member of the University of Manitoba Bisons cheerleading team, which won the Sea to Sky International Cheerleading Competition last year, said the photos will be a major setback for the sport's image.
"Cheerleading is trying hard to be an actual sport and this just degrades it," she said. "This makes it seem that all cheerleaders are is something to look at."
Marmus said cheerleading gave her self-esteem and a place to work out, make friends and learn how to be a part of a team. She said cheerleaders need to be aware that their behaviour affects the community.
"Cheerleaders are in the public eye... something like that makes the whole city look bad," she said.
The photos barely seemed to raise any eyebrows at city hall Monday night even though the city appoints representatives to the football club's board of directors.
St. Vital Coun. Gord Steeves said: "I'm not one of these people who goes around judging people by what they've done in the past."
North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty -- whose executive assistant is a member of the Bombers' cheerleading squad but who doesn't appear in the photos -- hadn't seen them but said "this could be a ridiculous indiscretion from 10 years ago."
"I don't think it's appropriate behaviour," Browaty added.
A spokesman for Mayor Sam Katz said there would be no comment. Brad Salyn suggested Katz was unaware of the photos.
paul.gackle@freepress.mb.ca
-- with files from Joe Paraskevas
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