Weight a minute

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Weight just a minute

08/09/2002

By JOYCE SÁENZ HARRIS / The Dallas Morning News

Maybe you caught HBO's Wednesday series Hard Knocks on TV last week. It was the first installment of a fairly dull-so-far look at the Dallas Cowboys in training camp, down in San .

There were, however, a few surprises, at least for me. Possibly this was because I gave up following the Cowboys long ago, except for the great Emmitt , my hometown hero and fellow Florida Gator. I just hadn't been paying attention, obviously.

I had no idea that becoming a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader could be such a horrid, demoralizing experience.

HBO focused on new cheerleader recruit Leah Lyons, a nurse from San . She has café-au-lait skin and big dark eyes that sparkle with genuine joy when she makes the squad. And like every Cowboys cheerleader, she is young, pretty and looks awesomely fit.

But not to Judy Trammell, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders' choreographer and a former cheerleader herself. Ms. Lyons and the others, it seems, are not fit enough. Not nearly.

"You've got to get stronger, 10 times stronger!" Ms. Trammell admonishes the rookies. They've got to be able to go through the exacting dance routines, not just with perfect steps – which they don't have yet – but with the athletic vigor Ms. Trammell insists on seeing in her troupe.

As I watch her lead a practice, it occurs to me that Judy Trammell would make an excellent Marine drill sergeant. She brooks no nonsense, yields no slack. There's something I grudgingly admire about people who strive that hard for perfection.

But then Ms. Trammell does something that troubles me.

She tells several cheerleaders, including Ms. Lyons, that they are too fat. "I'm being real honest with y'all," Ms. Trammell says, and her brisk tone is not kind. "You've got to lose some weight in your stomach. It's down to the wire now. OK? I know you think you don't need to, but you need to."

Her hawklike eyes zero in on one terrified blonde. "You have gained," Ms. Trammell informs her, adding mercilessly: "Look at you. Even your face. You've really got to lose it fast."

I stare at the young woman she's addressing, and I wonder how Ms. Trammell can possibly believe what she's saying. The camera is said to add 10 or 15 visual pounds to one's on-screen image; but to my eyes, this young woman with the hurt, wounded expression has not even the illusion of plumpness. None of the cheerleaders looks any heavier than she does. They all have the svelte look of women who work out religiously, and there's not a love handle in the bunch.

The others, including Ms. Lyons, cower under the same tongue-lashing. "You've gained some weight, too. ... You get some weight off. ... Lose a little weight in your stomach." And finally, Ms. Trammell delivers the crusher: "I'm not putting y'all in the first pre-game." As she says this, we see that Ms. Lyons has gotten up and turned away as if to flee.

But the rookie sticks with the program. "It's hard, because you have to eat right," Ms. Lyons tells HBO. She wants this so desperately. And it hurts to see her eagerness, her willingness to believe that what is happening to her is OK.

What is happening to her, of course, is the same thing that happened to ballerinas who danced for Balanchine. The same thing that happened to so many of Bela Karolyi's little Olympic gymnasts. They believed the unhealthy dictum that a fit, athletic body must also be painfully thin, conforming to an arbitrary, artificial standard of beauty.

For that's all it is. Women, as reproductive mammals, have bodies that naturally battle to keep a certain amount of fat as a defense against amenorrhea (cessation of menstruation), infertility, osteoporosis and even organ failure. Those last few ounces of tummy fat are the hardest to lose for that very reason: The body is fighting an unnatural loss.

It's one thing for Ms. Trammell (so like Mr. Karolyi) to tell her "girls" that they need to be stronger, more fit, in order to do their exhausting routines properly. It's another to tell them, in essence, that she doesn't want to see one extra ounce of fat on their bodies. They must get that way fast, or else.

And how they get that way appears not to matter. One wonders what some of them might do. Throw up food and then lift more weights, maybe? Or get an emergency liposuction to vacuum out the 8 ounces of subcutaneous fat that just won't disappear fast enough otherwise?

If already slender Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders "need" to lose weight, well – there's an attitude at Valley Ranch that stinks, every bit as much as the Cowboys' offense did last year.

It used to be that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were widely regarded as "the girls next door." Dauntingly attractive neighbors, yes, but basically wholesome, pert ambassadors of Dallas sport. They did many good things for charity and the community, and they still do – including 46 USO tours for the Department of Defense. They were real women athletes, not fashion models – and that healthy appeal made them the sideline icons of Barcalounger pilots everywhere.

But they're looking more and more like fashion models, many of whom are believed to have eating disorders. The cheerleaders' once-natural beauty often is dieted, Botoxed and tanned away, until they resemble clothes hangers with breast implants – right down to the Sports Illustrated-style swimsuit calendars, in fact.

"I felt patriotic to represent America, as America's sweethearts," Ms. Lyons tells HBO, recalling the first time she donned her skimpy cheerleader outfit. And bless her heart, she means every word. It seems she'll do whatever she must to achieve and maintain this painful, destructive ideal – no matter what it costs her mentally, emotionally or physically.

Luckily, they don't foist such high physical standards on the Cowboys' defensive line. Those guys tip the scales at 300 or 400 pounds, and honey, it ain't all muscle by any means. Maybe they should put Judy Trammell in charge of player conditioning?

But then again, maybe not.

I don't think the guys' egos could take it if Judge Judy decreed they must all be as cute as Richmond Flowers and as ripped as DeVeren .