“HOTTIE ALERT,” the Indianapolis Colts wrote on their official Instagram account for their cheerleading squad, below a photo of a string-bikini-clad cheerleader.
The post exemplified the peculiar nature of the jobs of N.F.L. cheerleaders: their social-media activities are severely restricted — they often cannot disclose their affiliations with the teams, and they cannot associate with players in any capacity online — but the teams themselves aggressively market the women as sex objects.
How N.F.L. teams treat their cheerleaders has received intense scrutiny in recent weeks, since The New York Times reported that the former Saints cheerleader Bailey Davis was fired for violating a team social-media policy.