Last season’s lone Titan Pro Bowler Brooke plans to soak in a finale season with the Titans Cheerleaders

Now don’t panic when you read this, because after the November elections are over, we can move on to the really important issues and start petitions, take out full page ads, and call Congressmen. But some of our favorite Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders are claiming that this will be the final season on the LP Field sidelines! For instance, Brooke, the only Pro Bowl representative of the franchise last season, be it player or cheerleader, is planning to have one last season in which to soak it all in. In her seventh season with the TTC, soaking it in one more time will be an amazing way to close out her career, as long as it does not include getting soaked during a downpour, like a couple memorable games over her Titans career. Prior to the Titans Cheerleader’s calendar release party on September 6th, Brooke shared with UltimateCheerleaders her past, present, and future, coming off an amazing season in which she not only was Pro Bowl representative, but calendar cover girl during the same season, and participated in a USO tour of Guam.

Seven years of cheer demonstrates Brooke’s extreme level of dedication to the Titans Cheerleaders. But add on the fact that during the much of that period, Brooke has been living in Kentucky, resulting in commutes of nearly ninety minutes to and from her Titans responsibilities at least four days a week. Brooke says, “I love Titans football; love it, love it!”

But how does Brooke spend all that time on the road? “I listen to music, sing to myself,” laughs Brooke. “I sound really good in the car; in the car only!”

Brooke is a Kentucky native and current resident, and dance has been part of her life since the beginning. “My mom owned a dance studio when I was born,” Brooke explains. “I have been dancing probably since I was two, since I could walk. I just came out dancing!”

Brooke’s dance upbringing was augmented with diverse training that prepared her for a completely unplanned NFL cheer career. “I cheered because my high school did not have a dance team, and I was actually a competitive gymnast growing up, so I had all kinds of background,” Brooke recalls “I did gymnastics, I did cheerleading, I did competitive cheerleading on a team, and I also did competitive dance in a studio.”

But Brooke’s varied experiences were not planned with a seven-season NFL (plus one NHL season) goal in mind. “I know a lot of people say, ‘I’ve dreamed of being an NFL cheerleader,’” Brooke says. “Honestly, I love to dance and perform, and when I went to college, I didn’t even think anything about it. I just knew I loved it, and liked teach (dance). I joined a dance company in college, and then it was not enough because I had never been to the point of my life where I wasn’t performing, and I was not doing those things that I love to do.”

“I actually was looking for dance auditions just because I have danced my whole life, and I wanted to continue that,” Brooke recalls. “So I was looking at auditions all over the country, and then ended up just finding the (Titans) auditions on-line, and thinking, ‘Oh, Nashville is close, I’ll go try out for that and see if I make it.’ It was spur of the moment, the month before.”

“I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into, at all!” Brooke laughs. “My first audition, I thought, ‘What in the world is this?’ It is totally different than other dance auditions. So it just happened that I made it my first year, and here I am, seven years later.”

Brooke’s answer on why she spent seven years on the squad, “I love it, that’s why I do it.”

And not only is Brooke a TTC member, she says, “I have been a captain for the past four seasons. I love being a captain, it is fun.” So captain Brooke, what advice have you given the rookies on this year’s edition of the Titans Cheerleaders? “It is a live and learn thing,” explains Brooke. “We give them a lot of pointers, but you don’t know what it’s like until you experience it. So I always tell them, the first time for everything is a huge deal, because you just don’t know what you are getting yourself into. And then when you run onto the field and there is 70,000 people, you think, ‘Oh my gosh! I am really in front of 70,000 people!’ It is one of those moments you can’t get back. So every time, I say, ‘This is the first pre-season game, this is the first real game, this is your first calendar shoot.’ So I just try to make sure that they realize, that later in life, they are going to think, ‘Oh my gosh, that first time is the best time, ever!’”

Brooke continues, “The first time for NFL cheerleading, in general, when you make the team, that is the first thing that happens, and it is SO amazing. And then you get all of the perks that go along with that. So there is a first time for everything. And I just keep telling them, to live in that moment because you do not get that moment back.”

And living in the moment is part of the joy of dance anyway. “I dance when I am happy, I dance when I am sad, I dance when I am mad,” Brooke says. “I think that is something that brings us all together, if you love the art of dance, then you can use that in life in general.”

So over seven years of Titans experiences, how about Brooke’s most embarrassing moment? “I did fall in front of everyone one game,” recalls Brooke. “I stepped in a hole, and it was my first or second season. We have on two-inch heels, and my ankle rolled, and I literally fell to the ground. Everybody that was sitting in the front row leaned over the edge, and said, ‘Oh! Are you okay?!’ And I thought, “Wow, yes, great.”

How about memorable weather games? “Oh, I can remember there was one game it raining so hard, that we ended up having to go into the locker room and put hats on and pull our hair up,” Brooke recounts. “And I can remember thinking that we are never going to make it, because it started getting cold after that. I could not see because my hat became so wet, that it started dripping. The bill was full of water. We were dancing in the rain, in mud, and it poured the rest of the game. I thought, ‘Well, here goes nothing! We’re just going to get soaked, no big deal.’ It’s one of those things that you think, ‘We’ll remember this!’”

But for overall most memorable game, Brooke goes back to the beginning. “Most memorable game for me,” Brooke contemplates, “was my first game, the experience of it.”

And then during TTC year six, Brooke learned she was Pro Bowl bound. “We have own special party, and at the party they announce the top three, and then they announce the winner,” Brooke explains. “And I had been in the top three before, and I was hoping to go, obviously, because it is the best honor of cheerleading. So when I found out, it was amazing. I was super excited! But then, after you find out, you have to wait for SO LONG. It seemed like I was waiting for Pro Bowl for such a long time. I remember getting all the dances in the mail, and I would learn one every night. So I learned all thirteen of them, and we received a packing list, and slowly it became more real. Because you can talk about it, but you have no idea what you are going to experience until you are there.”

Brooke was happy that the Pro Bowl returned to Hawaii, not only for herself, but future Pro Bowl cheerleaders. “You have to experience every part of Hawaii because it’s just the best part of being in Pro Bowl, and the honor,” Brooke says. “I have a video that documents the whole journey.”

However, one aspect of Brooke’s Pro Bowl experience was about the people not the location. “I guess it could have been anywhere, because the best part was the girls I was with,” Brooke explains. “We will be friends forever, and that is something that will last. I can always go back to Hawaii and visit.”

Does Brooke keep in touch with any of her Pro Bowl sisters? “Oh my gosh, yes!” Brooke replies. “We keep in touch with everybody, and what’s going on: if they are cheering this year, if they are not; a lot of the girls retired after Pro Bowl, and some of them are getting married or have gotten married, or are having babies. I met friends that I will keep in touch with forever.”

Another memorable “people” aspect of the Pro Bowl involves the fans. “The fans are SO excited about the cheerleaders,” Brooke says. “It just seemed like we were kind of the focal point because we were actually out in the crowd more, and out doing things in Honolulu.”

And over the years, in addition to Honolulu, being a Titans Cheerleader has taken Brooke to Fort Lewis in Washington state, Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Campbell near her home in Kentucky, and Las Vegas, but the post Pro Bowl USO trip to Guam with other Pro Bowl cheerleaders for the Super Bowl topped them all. “That was a crazy experience because the flight was so long when I came home, seventeen and a half hours,” Brooke recalls, “And on my clock, if I looked at the time it was at home, it said it was yesterday, but I was already in today. It was just so strange!”

“It was interesting because it is like a thirty mile island, and that’s it,” Brooke details. “So it had two bases on it, and one strip (with) a lot of tourist attractions. Then after you go past that, it is beach and nothing. It was cool, though. So it was right after Pro Bowl, it was our second week, so we were all in a daze. We all thought, ‘I can’t believe we are in Guam!’ It was during the Super Bowl, so we did a performance on one base, and then had to travel thirty minutes to the other side of the island to get to the other base to do another performance so we were being equal to both bases,” Brooke laughs. “That was a FUN trip.”

Brooke needed to reschedule two and a half weeks of her life for that Pro Bowl/Guam trip, which had to be challenging as a business owner. Like her mom, Brooke owns her own dance studio in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, “Brooke Bailey Dance Addiction,” about thirty minutes from her mom’s studio.

Brooke began teaching at her mom’s studio when she was young, and over time, the joy Brooke gets out of teaching dance has evolved with changes in her own life perspectives. “I used to love (to teach) because I love to dance myself, so I was just dancing in a class,” reflects Brooke. “Now, I watch a lot of kids grow. I have had my studio for three years and the difference between the girls that were just starting out and now, if they have stuck with it, you can just see them develop. And I feel that dance has a lot of life lessons. Whenever you dance for a long time, it also teaches you multiple life lessons, on how to be responsible and remember things on your own. When I first started teaching for my mom, I was probably fourteen, so now it is totally different than when I first started teaching.”

Plus Brooke notes, “And I love the little kids because they are hilarious and entertaining.”

Can Brooke tell at young ages whether the youngsters will be future dance stars? “If they have a natural knack for it, then you can usually,” Brooke says. “But then there are other kids that are going to stick with it and just have the heart for it, and sometimes that is better than the natural talent because they want to work harder. So it depends on your personality, really.”

But for the really young ones, Brooke laughs, “When they are three and four, remembering anything from week to week is amazing!”

But with both a growing business and coaching middle school and high school teams, Brooke feels like this should be her final season with the Titans Cheerleaders. Brooke says, “After I went to Pro Bowl, I thought, ‘This should have been my last year. I accomplished everything through Titans cheerleading that I truly want to accomplish.’ But then I thought, ‘I should probably have a closure season,’” Brooke laughs. “So this is my closing season. It’s time. My business is getting so busy, and life catches up to you. Seven years is a long time to do this.”

But that does not mean that we can’t try a little convincing, appealing to Brooke’s own “dance addiction.” But if we fail, and Brooke stays off the sidelines next year, certainly LP Field will spontaneously burst into a voluminous, “Won’t you come home Brooke Bailey,” during 2013’s first game. Whatever super-secret Kentucky dance recipe Brooke’s mom whipped up for her, Brooke’s adds spice to the Titans sidelines, and Brooke is passing on this family formula of dance love to her TTC teammates, her dance students, her school dance teams, and to the enjoyment of the Titans fans. Whenever Brooke leaves the sidelines, the influence of her seven year legacy will remain.

Thanks SO much to Brooke for sharing her experiences during a BUSY night! And thanks to Stacie Kinder, the Titans Director of Cheerleading, and her wonderful staff for all of their assistance. More photos of Brooke from the first home game are here at this link