Former Dolphin Cheerleaders Return for ‘Amazing Race’ All-star Edition
By Tom Jicha
The redheads are back!”
This is the war whoop of Jaime Edmondson and Cara Rosenthal as they roar off the starting grid for their second odyssey on “The Amazing Race.” It’s an opportunity the former Dolphin cheerleaders dreamed of but never thought would come to pass.
“We heard they weren’t fans of all-star editions,” said Rosenthal, who lives in Boca Raton. “That was a bummer.”
When they got the invitation, there was no hesitancy to re-up.
The subtitle of the season, which begins Sunday in HD for the first time, is “Unfinished Business.” It could have been coined with Edmondson, 32, and Rosenthal, 28, in mind. They will be competing against other teams that have gotten close to the $1 million grand prize. But none came as close as the two redheads.
The big payoff seemed within their grasp in the final leg of Season 14 when a confused cabdriver in Hawaii cost them the time that relegated them to second place.
“That was really frustrating because we’re such competitive women,” Rosenthal said. “In many ways we have been haunted by the second-place finish. We were convinced we were going to win.” At the time their first runner-up finish was the best ever for a two-woman team.
It’s the what-if’s, such as “What if we had chosen a different cab driver,” that make the loss so hard to shake, said Edmonson, of Fort Lauderdale. “Thinking about that is more difficult than if we had made a mistake ourselves.”
There’s really little advantage to having had the full experience, Edmondson said. “There’s only so much you can do to prepare because so much of it is luck.” One thing they did pick up: “We learned we didn’t need such heavy backpacks.”
Though they share the same intense competitiveness, they are opposites in many ways, Edmondson said. “Cara probably has more fun than me. She tries to make friends with everyone and is laidback. I’m so not that way. I’ll harp on the smallest detail and beat myself up on it. It’s just my personality.”
“I think that’s what makes us a really good team,” Rosenthal said.
They’ve also taken dramatically different career paths. Rosenthal is studying to be a lawyer. She said she is grateful to her professors and the administration at Nova Southeastern for working with her to allow her to participate in another “Amazing Race.”
The CBS reality show opened an unanticipated door for Edmondson. A former cop, then a model, she was approached by Playboy to appear in the magazine. “I thought I was being punked,” she said. “I was a 30-year-old redhead. I thought that ship had sailed for me a long time ago.” She had no compunctions about posing, and became the January 2010 Playmate of the Month.
Rosenthal had the same opportunity. “They asked us both originally,” she said. It just didn’t feel right for her. But she’s not being judgmental toward her traveling partner. “I thought it was great. I bought the first issue that came out on the newsstand.”
Edmondson now lists her occupation as Playboy Playmate. It’s a full-time job, she said. She just got back from appearing at the magazine’s Super Bowl party in Dallas. “There are events like that all year long. It has been a great adventure.”
Just like “The Amazing Race.”
