Former NFL Cheerleaders Accuse Buffalo Bills of Demeaning Treatment, Unfair Pay
Five former Buffalo Bills cheerleaders, known as the Buffalo Jills, are accusing their team of demeaning treatment and unfair pay.
"Our dream as being a Buffalo Jills cheerleader was taken advantage of," former cheerleader identified only as Maria P. told ABC affiliate WKBW.
The suit, filed by five former Buffalo Jills, says the team controlled everything from how much bread to eat at formal dinners to how to properly eat soup. The cheerleaders say the team even regulated what color nail polish they could wear.
At an annual golf tournament, the cheerleaders say they were required to wear bikinis and were subjected to degrading sexual comments and touched inappropriately.
And every week, they say they had the "jiggle test" and those who failed, in some cases, "were penalized, suspended or dismissed."
"Everything from standing in front of us with a clip board and have us do a jiggle test to see what parts of our body were jiggling," former Buffalo Jill Alyssa told ABC affiliate WKBW.
According to the suit, one Bills cheerleader says she was paid just $105 for the entire season.
"We are aware of this lawsuit, and it is our organizational policy not to comment on pending litigation," Scott Berchtold, the Bills' senior vice president of communications, told The Buffalo News.
The NFL isn't commenting.
Buffalo follows suits by cheerleaders from the Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders, some of whom claim they were paid less than $5 an hour.
The Jills suit says while they earned less than minimum wage, while the highest paid player on the team raked in an average of $16 million a season.