Cheering along the Buffalo Bills sideline as a Buffalo Jill was a dream come true for Sue Dougherty. “It far exceeded my expectations. The friendships that I made, the opportunities that were afforded to me, nothing can compare,” she said.
That's why she can't understand the recent class action lawsuit filed against the NFL by a group of NFL cheerleaders. The suit demands higher wages and better working conditions. “When you signed up to cheer, you knew you were not going to get paid. So, to go back and say I should get paid seems frivolous to me.” “You choose to go to the tryout,” said Kimberly Zak who was a Jill from 1996 to 2000. “Nobody forces you. And, you tryout and it's a difficult tryout. So, then you make the team, but again it's your choice. Nobody's forcing you to do it.”
The Buffalo Jills are not part of the suit. They haven't existed since five Jills filed their own lawsuit in 2014 against the bills organization for back wages. That suit still isn't settled.
“These girls work so hard and that opportunity's been stripped from them. And I don't even know if it's so much the Bills took away the opportunity. I personally feel the lawsuit took away the opportunity. You can't put a price on the experience. You just can't. You can try but I think most of us are disappointed that it came down to this,” Dougherty said.
