Theresa (second from right) along with (from left) her son Christopher Pottratz, intern Alicia Schwartzentruber, and intern Heather Hudson at Indy's Monument Circle, celebrating the fact that they had survived Super Bowl XLVI (click to enlarge)
For all the talk of whether or not there would be cheerleaders at the recent Super Bowl in Indianapolis, for anyone who visited the city’s Super Bowl Village or watched “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” there was no doubt. No matter which teams had made the final two, there were definitely cheerleaders playing a big role in the Super Bowl festivities. Between extended autograph sessions at the convention center’s NFL Experience, singing and dancing at the three stages within Super Bowl Village, appearing on two of Jimmy Fallon’s shows at Indy’s Hilbert Circle Theatre, or countless other appearances, such as dancing in the sand at the Celebrity Beach Bowl football game, the Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders made sure that there was no question that pro cheerleaders are an essential part of NFL entertainment.
Colts Cheerleaders Coordinator Theresa Pottratz and her talented squad worked tirelessly prior to and during Super Bowl week to entertain the million plus visitors who enjoyed Super Bowl Village and the myriad of nearby events. A couple days after the Super Bowl, Theresa took a way beyond-well deserved vacation to Costa Rica, and upon her return to Indy, graciously answered our questions about a memorable week for her, the Colts Cheerleaders, and all of Indianapolis.
UC.com – Theresa, did you get advice from other cheer squad directors regarding what Super Bowl week is like for the host city cheerleaders? Do you think the Colts Cheerleaders were more visible and in demand than usual because of the unique nature of downtown Indy’s popular Super Bowl Village?
Theresa – I did actually talk to other cheer directors about the Super Bowl in their cities and so I had a little bit of an idea of what to expect, but what made our city so unique was the Super Bowl Village. We performed multiple times every day for ten days in the Super Bowl Village, which required a lot of rehearsal time before hand. I don’t believe all the other cities had anything quite like our fabulous Super Bowl Village.
The Colts Cheerleaders perform in Super Bowl Village
UC.com – Compare and contrast, running a cheer squad that is on the sidelines for the Super Bowl, versus being host city’s cheerleaders? Is one more or less crazy?
Theresa – I would say being the host city is a lot crazier! When we were in the Super Bowl, I had to worry about certain things like transportation and per diems for food, but most things were taken care of. Most of the appearances are on the Friday and Saturday before the game. Being the host city, I worked 127 hours in ten days. All 41 of my girls were booked most days from January 27th through February 5th, and because we had so many different performances with a variety of routines, we had a lot of practicing to do. We don’t just do normal sideline routines. We had a wide variety of dance numbers including lyrical and tap and five fabulous singers! We like to be a little different! I don’t know how we would have made it if we had been both the host team and in the Super Bowl, but I would have liked to try!
UC.com – When did Jimmy Fallon’s show contact you, and what are some fun memories?
Theresa – I think the first contact was in December because they originally wanted to tape a segment on January 8th, but that fell through. Then on January 19th, I received another phone call saying they wanted girls for two different shows. I had to do some rearranging of the schedule to get all the girls they wanted, but we made it work. The staff and crew of the Jimmy Fallon show are wonderful. We had so much fun working with them. The girls even rhinestoned a pair of underpants for Captain Underpants, aka Seth Herzog, and Jimmy had to apologize to me for accidentally hitting one of my cheerleaders!
Theresa backstage at "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" with prodution associate Brandon Dubeansky and Seth Herzog, pre-show warm up comic and "Captain Underpants"
UC.com – For the Jimmy Fallon show, was it difficult to select which Cheerleaders would be part of it (see clips here)? Also, was the choreography during the final show provided by squad or the show?
Theresa – Since we didn’t get the call until a week before our Super Bowl events started, it wasn’t that hard, because it was more of who was available at the times they needed us to be there. I did try to spread out what I called the “premier” events so that as many girls as possible got to be involved with those extra special appearances. The choreography was provided by their wonderful choreographer Danielle Flora.
Performing in Late Night's Super Bowl edition of "Models and Buckets"
UC.com – What were some of the logistical challenges during Super Bowl week, dealing with traffic, having uniforms ready every day, et cetera?
Theresa – The logistics were a nightmare! My interns and I spent hours and hours trying to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be with the right uniform and the proper credentials. Because our normal transportation company was charging so much during Super Bowl week, we decided to use Colts vehicles with interns chauffeuring. We were fortunate to have some parking spaces available through the NFL and the Super Bowl committee, so it worked fairly well. Our biggest issue on game day was that our security company did not get properly credentialed to be in the perimeter, so we were a little short handed that day.
UC.com – What are your feelings about how Indianapolis served as Super Bowl hosts?
Theresa – I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of Indianapolis and the Super Bowl Committee. I think they did an amazing job. Everyone was so easy to work with it. I talked to so many people from the NFL and the media who kept telling me this was the best Super Bowl they have ever been to. I was really impressed with the Village and how many people were always there.
UC.com – What were some of the comments that you heard from the Cheerleaders about their experiences? It was a mild weather week, but for a squad that performs under a roof a lot of the time, how was performing in a variety of weather conditions, performing on sand at Victory Field’s Beach Bowl, and singing in front of throngs on Georgia Street?
Theresa – The words I kept hearing from the girls were, “This is the most amazing experience of my life.” The weather was a little bad the first weekend because the wind was so strong and it was hard to do some of the dance moves, but not only did the Colts Cheerleaders do a great job but our Junior Cheerleaders were out there as well. The sand for the Beach Bowl was a little rough but they made it through. It really helped to have girls who have traveled with tour shows before, because they are used to being flexible because you never know what conditions you might be performing in. I was very proud of how my girls handled themselves.
The Colts Cheerleaders perform on the sand during the Celebrity Beach Bowl
UC.com – This year’s squad had to endure an unusual, for the Colts lately, 2-14 season. How did you feel about this particular squad being able to be part of the excitement Super Bowl week?
Theresa – It really was a different season for us so it was nice to have the Super Bowl here, but even without that, we had a great year. We are very blessed to have a lot of unique opportunities for the girls to participate in.
UC.com – During the seasons when the Colts made the Super Bowl, what is it like to be on the field for a Super Bowl? Where were you during this past Super Bowl?
Theresa – There is nothing like being on the field during the opening moments of the Super Bowl. Everyone in the entire stadium is so excited! Once the game gets going though, it’s not that much different than a regular game, until the end of course. For Super Bowl XLVI, we were in the stadium for “NFL on Location” in the Exhibit Halls all afternoon, but we had to leave shortly after kick-off to get to our next appearance. It was a little sad when we had to leave the stadium after the game started though. We wanted to be on the sidelines. Fortunately, my next appearance was going to the Hilbert Theater to watch the game with some of the Jimmy Fallon staff!
UC.com – Was part of your responsibilities to serve as “host” to the Patriots squad during their time in Indy or to the Saintsations during their NFL Experience appearance?
Theresa – As soon as I heard the Patriots were coming, I sent an email to their director, Tracy Sormanti. She’s a great lady and I would have loved to spend some time with her and her girls. We tried to arrange for the girls to get together but unfortunately, our schedules just didn’t work out. They came to town on Thursday that week and our schedules were completely booked from that point on.
We did get together with the Saintsations though. Lesslee Fitzmorris and I had gotten the girls together back when we were both in Miami for Super Bowl XLIV. The girls had a great time. This year some of the girls went out together on Friday, January 27th, and then we worked together for the cheer clinic on January 29th. Of course Lesslee and I were able to squeeze in a lunch and a breakfast during those few days she was here.
UC.com – What advice would you give a cheer director of an NFL squad that hosts a Super Bowl? Who do you want to give a shout out to anyone who made things run smoothly during the week?
Theresa – My advice would be to go with the flow! No matter how carefully you plan, something will change last minute. The other thing that I would recommend is to have a large squad. We went from 32 girls to 42 girls for the 2011 squad because of Super Bowl. I would never have been able to fill all our appearances if I didn’t have extra girls. I would love for us to host the Super Bowl again. I feel like I would know what to expect and could plan accordingly, but overall, I was happy with the way everything went.
I want to give a shout out to my interns, Alicia and Heather, for all their hard work, to marketing interns Kelsey and Ashley for helping with the driving, to my son Christopher who worked with us the whole week, and a special shout out to my Junior Cheer helpers, because without them, the Junior Cheerleaders would not have had the opportunity to perform three different times.
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For those spending time in Indy’s Super Bowl Village, visitors saw a glimpse of the totality of the Colts Cheerleaders’ Herculean efforts and their ability to be present whenever and wherever needed, just like real-life super heroes, during Super Bowl week. We thank Theresa for her indefatigable efforts during Super Bowl week and for taking time out to participate in this interview. In the days after the Super Bowl, the skies darkened, cold winds visited, and the downtown’s Super Bowl ornamentation removed, but the city retains wonderful memories of a special week, during which Theresa and the Colts Cheerleaders rocked, and did the city and pro cheerleading proud.
Two amazing journeys started in the football season of 2001.
A young quarterback by the name of Tom Brady buttoned up his chinstrap after hometown favorite Drew Bledsoe went down with a severe injury.
The same season, a young dancer named Melissa Amershek moved to North Andover and joined the Patriots cheerleading squad.
The adventure that ensued will forever live on in the hearts of New Englanders, and it would also help Amershek open up a dance studio in North Andover that was recently voted the number 1 dance school in Andover and North Andover in each of the last two years.
For Amershek, the owner of Just Dance in North Andover, that journey began with a test.
Amershek joined the cheering squad in 2001 with only a basic understanding of the game. “They make you take this five page test,” Amershek told Patch. “You’re not allowed to be on the field until you pass the test and you know your stuff,” she continued.
And with that, a seed of passion for football was planted. “By the second or third game we were so into it we could make calls ourselves,” she recalled.
As Brady gained confidence and wins, Amershek and her cheerleading teammates had a phenomenal view from the field.
“It’s intense being on those sidelines,” she said. As the playoffs approached, the intensity increased.
In the divisional round of the 2001 playoffs, the Patriots hosted the Oakland Raiders in what is unanimously known as one of the most dramatic, picturesque, and exciting football games of all time.
The “Tuck Rule” game was played in almost blizzard conditions and it was the last game played at the old Foxborough Stadium. In the waning minutes, the game was almost lost when Brady appeared to have fumbled the ball.
Amershek and her teammates held their breath on the sidelines until the final ruling declared that the Patriots would retain the ball.
“Thank God for that call, it’s made history,” Amershek recalled.
After winning the AFC Championship in Pittsburgh, Amershek, Brady, and the Patriots moved on to Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans.
“To be there for the Super Bowl, it was unbelievable,” Amershek said.
When asked which experience was more memorable, Amershek replied “It was the first successful Super Bowl so that would have to take the cake.”
“The Snow Bowl was a close second; that was the last game in the old stadium,” she continued.
Amershek now runs one of the Merrimack Valley’s most successful dance studios, Just Dance.
“This is my passion; it’s what I love to do,” she said.
“I had over 100 customers on day one of opening my doors, and it’s grown every year,” she continued. “Right now we’re at about 300 students and it’s still growing.”
Amershek also credits the town of North Andover for fostering a good attitude toward businesses. “When you’re trying to open a new business in this area, the town works with you so much,” she said. “It’s business friendly, its family friendly, and it’s just a nice, safe area.”
Just Dance offers competition and recreational programs as well as a popular boutique. “We have something for everyone,” Amershek said.
As for her beloved Patriots, there is a big game on Sunday, in case you needed a reminder.
In Super Bowl XLVI, Amershek, like many of us, is hoping for another Patriots victory. “I don’t want to jinx us, but I’m thinking Welker as MVP,” she said.
The adventure continues this Sunday as Brady and the Patriots hope for a fourth Super Bowl win and Amershek and her students continue to dance their hearts out.
Bonnie-Jill Laflin returns to Candlestick with her father, Ross Laflin, to reminisce about the 49ers.
By Bonnie-Jill Laflin | Special to Page 2 ESPN Page 2
January 17, 2012
As I prepare for this weekend’s NFC Championship Game, I am filled with anticipation.
It is so exciting to see the San Francisco 49ers host the most important game of their season.
I’m so proud to see they are getting the respect they’ve been missing since those glory years.
Fans everywhere are talking about their chances against the New York Giants and how this will be a true test. But, win or lose, the new Jim Harbaugh 49ers are making a statement. In just one year, they have made an incredible turnaround, and who would have thought the road to the Super Bowl would come through Candlestick Park.
As a San Francisco native, I grew up a 49ers fan. I had no choice, being a daddy’s girl and he being a 49ers season-ticket holder; I was always in tow to each home game.
This past Saturday, as I stepped onto the sidelines at The Stick with my dad, my head flooded with so many emotions.
These were the same sidelines I cheered on as a member of the 49ers Gold Rush from 1994 to ’96, the years when if we didn’t win a championship, it was a bad year. The dynasty years, the era of Steve Young and Jerry Rice. The year when Young finally got that monkey off his back, and now here I was again.
It was a perfectly sunny day, unlike most in San Francisco in January, when the fog and biting cold are normal. I wondered whether this was a sign.
Bonnie-Jill Laflin was a 49ers cheerleader in the mid-1990s.
I looked around the stadium, soaking it in.
I had my Super Bowl ring on, along with all my blinged-out Niners gear.
I felt like I was back home and with my 49ers family, surrounded by so many 49ers greats from the ’80s and the ’90s, such as Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, Eric Davis, Brent Jones and Keena Turner, now supporting the new members of the 49ers family.
I said hello to coach George Seifert, who was being honored that day, and we reminisced about the good old days and talked about how we both hoped this would mark the return of the 49ers, the 49ers of the DeBartolo years.
But now we’re here in 2012, with a new regime led by 49ers president Jed York, who spent a few moments with me on the field prior to the game and dubbed me the 49ers’ good luck charm.
The player intros of the starting defense got those in the crowd swinging their rally towels and screaming, “Who’s got it better than us — nobody!” That’s Harbaugh’s mantra. The game was an emotional roller coaster, a high-powered offense and the NFL’s stingiest defense battling quarter after quarter. Who would have ever thought that in the final four minutes, these two teams would be exchanging blows like heavyweight boxers in the last round of a championship fight.
The emotions bonded us as we exchanged high-fives, and paced up and down the aisles with each lead change. Fans who did not know each other before the game now were united in one cause to get a W and advance to the NFC title game once more. The Stick was rocking it.
Then came “The Grab” with nine seconds left as Vernon Davis scored the winning touchdown on the 30th anniversary of “The Catch.” And finally Alex Smith got the monkey off his back and silenced his critics.
Harbaugh, in only one year, has instilled a new attitude and a new energy.
This is what sports is all about.
I looked around the stands, and I saw everyone hugging and screaming, my dad and I sharing the same hug we shared when I was a girl, and I thought to myself, “Who’s got it better than us — nobody.”
Bonnie-Jill Laflin is the first and only female scout in the NBA, an animal activist, and a former cheerleader. She can be reached on Twitter here.
Melanie Snare is hoping to fulfill her final NFL dream
ATLANTA (January 2, 2011) – Melanie Snare, was a cheerleader/dancer at UNC-Chapel Hill and then cheered in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons for 5 seasons, was a Captain on the team, traveled to Egypt to entertain the US military, cheered in the American Bowl in Tokyo and was even selected as the 2006 Pro Bowl Cheerleader ending her career on the sidelines in Hawaii. But there was one major NFL dream that never came true – the Super Bowl. Now that final dream could be within reach with the support of the dance & cheerleading world thanks to an online contest for the Super Bowl Bud Light special correspondent.
Bud Light is currently holding a Facebook contest to search for a special correspondent for Super Bowl XLVI and Melanie has entered. Candidates will be evaluated by the number of ‘Likes’ they receive on Facebook and a special judging panel. Melanie is hoping the cheerleading world rallies around her and helps send her to Indianapolis as the special correspondent to make this final dream come true. She works as a TV host based out of Atlanta covering entertainment, red carpets, sports and more so she is perfect for this correspondent position. She even hosted a TV show this NFL season covering the Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders audition process and swimsuit calendar shoot in Bermuda called New South.
To help this NFL Cheerleader Alumni make it to the Super Bowl, please vote for her as the Super Bowl correspondent before January 20, 2012. Click here and follow the simple instructions below:
Click on “View Applications”
Find the video titled “Melanie Snare” and click on it. [currently it's on the first page, but you may have to browse through the pages]
Click “like” to the right of Melanie’s video under her name to “vote” for her.
It will prompt you to share your vote on your Facebook wall to let others know to vote for Melanie too.
For more information about Melanie, please visit www.MelanieSnare.com and please connect with her on Facebook (Click here) & Twitter (Click here). She loves connecting with cheerleaders from around the world!
DALLAS — A substantial wing of the Dallas Cowboys’ suburban headquarters is devoted to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. On Thursday afternoon, in an immense dance studio, members of the world’s most famous cheer squad rehearsed for one of their dozens of appearances surrounding the Super Bowl this week.
“We have never been this busy,” said Kelli McGonagill Finglass, a Cowboys cheerleader in the 1980s and the director since 1991.
But Super Bowl XLV itself represents an unusual happenstance in the coupled worlds of football and cheerleading. In a state famous for Friday Night Lights and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, where Lawrence Herkimer practically invented the modern cheerleader (and did patent the pompom), there will be no cheerleaders at the biggest football game of them all.
The Packers and Steelers are two of the six N.F.L. teams without professional cheerleading squads. Sunday’s game is believed to be the first time in more than 40 years that no team cheerleaders will be on the sideline of the Super Bowl.
It will probably be the first and last time that no cheerleaders will be on the sideline for a football game at Cowboys Stadium, too, if not anywhere else in Texas.
This is a place where it is often said that parents wish their boys to become quarterbacks and their girls to become cheerleaders. That a cheerleader-less Super Bowl is being played in Texas, at the home of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, is seen here as the ultimate irony.
“In Texas, if you have football players on the field and you don’t have cheerleaders on the sideline?” Denise Martin, founder of Texas Cheerleader magazine, asked rhetorically. “Where there is football in Texas, there are cheerleaders.”
Not this time.
Both the Packers and Steelers have had cheerleading squads in the past. The Packers, in fact, say that they had the N.F.L.’s first, in 1931. But the franchises now believe that modern-day professional cheerleaders — dance squads, really — are not a good fit for their teams or their markets.
The New York Giants, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns also do not have professional cheerleader squads.
They all stand in stark relief to the Dallas Cowboys and their famed cheerleaders, a profit maker for the franchise (the team will not reveal the numbers) thanks to merchandise sales, appearance fees and the millions of mouse clicks that bring fans to the team’s Web site. It is nearly impossible to imagine the Cowboys without the cheerleaders.
“We’re too strongly branded together,” Finglass said.
By doing without cheerleaders, however, the Steelers and Packers send a quieter message about how they view themselves and want to be seen by others.
The Packers disbanded their last professional cheer-and-dance squad in 1988, after a poll of fans found strong opposition and indifference. The team came to see the dancers as incongruous to the franchise’s focus on football history, from founder Curly Lambeau to coach Vince Lombardi and beyond.
For the past 20 years, there have been cheerleaders at Lambeau Field — co-ed squads borrowed from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and nearby St. Norbert College. The Packers did not invite them to the Super Bowl.
“We think our nod to tradition and a collegiate feel at games probably adds to our brand value — for the opposite reason having cheerleaders may add to that of the Cowboys,”‘ said Jason Wied, Green Bay’s vice president for administration.
Dressed in Packers regalia, the cheerleading men hoist megaphones and wave giant flags. The women wear traditional sweaters and skirts. They start chants, build pyramids and hold signs, just as they do for their college teams on other days of the week.
“Most other teams are more dancers, not cheerleaders,” said Ann Rodrian, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay cheerleading coach whose squad has worked Packers’ home games for 20 years. “They don’t usually show us because my girls have all their clothes on.”
The Steelerettes cheered in Pittsburgh from 1961 to 1969. They were women from Robert Morris Junior College (now Robert Morris University) brought to help a struggling franchise sell tickets and attract attention.
“We knew from the beginning that the Chief didn’t really want us down on the field,” said the Steelerette Dianne Feazell Rossini, referring to the late Steelers founder Art Rooney. “Mr. Rooney wasn’t really crazy about it, but he kind of tolerated it for a time.”
She remembers the game against the Bears at Forbes Field after the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy. Given the somber mood, the Steelerettes were asked to stay seated on the sideline and not cheer. To fight the chill, Rooney ordered that they be given Steelers jackets, Rossini said. Hers now resides in a Pittsburgh museum, along with her Steelerettes uniform.
The Steelers make little mention of the Steelerettes. The team this week declined to discuss its reasons for not having cheerleaders.
“It’s simply an organizational decision,” the team spokesman Dave Lockett wrote in an e-mail message.
Yet it has been at least 40 years, however, since the Super Bowl was played without cheerleaders. The precise game is hard to determine because the N.F.L. and the Pro Football Hall of Fame have no records of whether cheerleading squads accompanied teams to various Super Bowls.
But one man has chronicled the games like no other. Steve Sabol is president of NFL Films, founded in 1964 by his father, Ed. (Ed Sabol is a finalist this year for the Hall of Fame, whose 2011 class will be announced on Saturday.) Steve Sabol was assigned to film off-field action on the sideline for the first Super Bowl in January 1967, between Green Bay and Kansas City.
“I don’t remember ever seeing any Packers cheerleaders or Chiefs cheerleaders on the sideline,” Sabol said. “That’s not to say they weren’t there, but it was my job to shoot anything like that. And I never saw any.”
Sabol vaguely recalls cheerleaders at Super Bowl II between Green Bay and Oakland, perhaps from the Raiders or a local squad from Miami, where the game was held, unaffiliated with either team.
“Super Bowl III, between the Jets and Colts, I know the Colts had cheerleaders,” Sabol said. And both the Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings had them at Super Bowl IV, he said. Every Super Bowl has had at least once squad since.
That streak will end on Sunday.
“It’s weird, for this site, not to have cheerleaders,” Sabol said. “Because the Dallas cheerleaders are the most famous cheerleaders in the N.F.L.”
Their studio at Cowboys’ headquarters is about 100 feet long and 40 feet wide, with a hardwood floor and mirrors lining two sides. Another wall holds life-sized posters of the cheerleaders, in their familiar uniform of cowboy boots, short white shorts, low-cut blue blouses and fringed vests.
A large banner hangs as a sort of cheerleaders’ creed; “Promise to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true,” one pronouncement reads. A scale stands at the door. An adjacent office is filled with posters of the cheerleaders in bikinis, shots used for the squad’s popular calendar.
On Thursday afternoon, 15 cheerleaders from the team’s “show group,” an elite part of the 34-member squad, practiced a routine with a hip-hop dance troupe. They will perform together at a party on Saturday night at the House of Blues.
On Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders will make several appearances outside Cowboys Stadium, performing for fans and sponsors before the game.
But inside their home, something unusual will occur. The hubbub of the Super Bowl sideline will not include cheerleaders.
Just six teams in the National Football League compete each week without the support of professional cheerleaders. Two of those teams — the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers — will be facing off Sunday in Super Bowl XLV. Ironically, the league’s most anticipated and most prestigious game will take place at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the most recognized NFL professional cheerleading squad.
Sunday’s showdown will be the first time in the Super Bowl’s 45 years that no cheerleaders will be taking to the sidelines. One of those cheerleaders not making the trip is 2010 Colfax High graduate Heather Smith, whose UW-Green Bay cheer squad doubles as the Packers’ official cheerleaders, although they are not employed by the team.
Thankful, honored
“That’s perfectly fine with us,” said Smith after being asked how she felt about being excluded from the nation’s biggest sporting event. “We have had the opportunity to cheer for them at every home game, and no matter where we are or what were are doing, we will continue to support the ‘Pack.’ We are very fortunate, being a college cheer team, to have the opportunity to cheer for an NFL team, and for that, I am so thankful and honored. I know that the Packers will go out and fight to bring the Super Bowl title back to Titletown USA!”
The last time the two teams met was Dec. 20, 2009, in Pittsburgh, game that ended in a 37-36 victory for the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers on a Ben Roethlisberger touchdown pass to Mike Wallace as time expired. For many, the expectations are for a similar game this time between two of the league’s most accomplished teams.
This is the Steelers’ eighth trip to Super Bowl, winning six of their first seven appearances. Green Bay was in the first two Super Bowls ever and are 3-for-4 in the title games race.
Beyond imagination
Smith has found her inaugural season as a collegiate cheerleader to be an eventful learning experience.
“I have learned to be more confident in myself,” said Smith. “When you’re out there in front of thousands of people, you really have to trust yourself and be confident that you will succeed… I’m doing stuff in college cheerleading that I never would have pictured myself ever doing.
“Believe it or not, cheer has taught me how to manage my time more wisely,” Smith noted. “Cheerleading in college is huge responsibility, and it is up to you to balance homework, classes, work, a social life and cheerleading. That can be rather complicating, but in the end, it makes you grow as a person.”
She added, “I have learned to have a great deal more respect for cheerleaders everywhere. The amount of time, we put into what we do is ridiculous, but so worth it in the end.”
So, although she won’t be joining her second team in Texas, Smith said, “I am still in love with cheerleading… Cheering for the Packers this year has been amazing. I never imagined when I made the squad this past year that the Packers would make it all the way and that just made it 10 times more exciting.
“The Packers are an amazing team and deserve their place at the Super Bowl,” Smith continued. “Now I’m proud to say that in the future, I can be like, ‘Yeah, I cheered for the Packers the year they went to Super Bowl 45!”
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleader Brooke Newton (most recently seen on How I Met Your Mother) is stranded on a bus in the path of a tornado in the Cars.com Super Bowl commercial.
And back in 2005 Bonnie-Jill Laflin (DCC, SF Gold Rush, GS Warrior Girls) appeared in the FedEX “Burt Reynolds Dances with a Bear” commercial.
Two amazing journeys started in the football season of 2001.
Melanie Snare is hoping to fulfill her final NFL dream
Just six teams in the National Football League compete each week without the support of professional cheerleaders. Two of those teams — the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers — will be facing off Sunday in Super Bowl XLV. Ironically, the league’s most anticipated and most prestigious game will take place at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the most recognized NFL professional cheerleading squad.
