Sports Blogger Under Fire For Calling NBA Cheerleader "Too Chunky" to Cheer
"To be womanly always, discouraged never," the cheerleader tweeted back.
April 27, 2013— -- A CBS Houston sports blogger has come under fire for questioning whether an Oklahoma City Thunder Girl was "too chunky" to be an NBA cheerleader.
Blogger Claire Crawford targeted Oklahoma City Thunder cheerleader Kelsey Williams' looks on the court after the Houston Rockets faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
"The Rockets looked terrible in Game 1, but some say they weren't the only bad-looking people on the court," Crawford wrote.
While she conceded Williams was a "pretty blonde," she wrote Oklahoma City fans had criticized her for "having 'pudginess' around her waistline."
"But if she's comfortable wearing that tiny outfit and dancing for NBA fans, then good for her," Crawford wrote. "Besides…not every man likes women to be toothpick skinny. I'd say most men prefer a little extra meat on her bones."
A poll asked attached to his column asked readers what their opinions were on Williams in the Oklahoma City Thunder cheerleader outfit.
Voters could choose from three options. Either they thought Williams had "the perfect look to be an NBA cheerleader," "she could use some tightening up in her midsection," or "she has no business wearing that outfit in front of people."
Williams politely fired back at the post on Twitter.
"To be womanly always, discouraged never," she wrote.
"We wouldn't know what blessings were if we didn't go through trials. Thank you to EVERYONE for the compassion and love today. I'm in awe," she tweeted on April 24.
CBS Houston has since removed the post from its website, but a cached version of the page is still available online.
The Houston Chronicle reported that Crawford was a pseudonym for Anna-Megan Raley, who once blogged for the paper and posted a video of her audition to be a Houston Dynamo soccer team cheerleader. Raley's Twitter accounts, under her name and her alias, Crawford, have been deleted.
This isn't the first time a professional sports team cheerleader has been criticized for her looks.
Former Green Bay Packers cheerleader Kaitlyn Collins took to YouTube to post a video in response to a cruel post where she was called "ugly" and "an eyesore" on an unofficial Chicago Bears Fan page in February.