The Washington Football Team is Getting Rid of Their Cheerleading Squad

The Washington Football Team announced earlier this week that they won't have a cheerleading squad next season.  They will instead have a coed dance team.

The team's newly hired senior adviser says the team's dance squad wants to become more modern and diverse.

From USA Today:

Instead, after more than 50 seasons with a consistent cheerleading presence, a coed dance squad will take the field for the WFT's gameday entertainment. Petra Pope, the club's newly hired senior adviser, told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday that the new dance squad looks to become more modern and diverse, with a "skillset of being super athletic, which is what we're really honing in on."

"We want to be more inclusive, so we are going to invite a coed entity (to audition)," Pope said. "We’re able to do more things with the strength of a male, and lifts, so that’s changed a great deal. The inclusivity, strength and interest of choreography has changed."

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the franchise's shaky history of issues with their cheerleaders.  Although getting rid of the cheerleaders and replacing them with a coed dance squad does help reduce the amount of opportunities their front office has to repeat that shaky history.