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EAGAN Youth Pittsburgh Steelers Jerseys , Minn. (AP) — George Iloka had just sat down to eat with his wife when the call came from his agent.

The Cincinnati Bengals were letting him go. So much for that quiet day off. So much for all that time in training camp perfecting the scheme. So much for the only NFL team he’d ever played for.

“But that’s the business. That’s what we kind of signed up for. Things happen. At the end of the day, you’re just a number for the most part,” Iloka said.

Fortunately for Iloka, his first defensive coordinator was interested in a reunion. The Vikings signed Iloka, a former pupil of coach Mike Zimmer, to a one-year contract on Wednesday to add yet another accomplished player to what was the best defense in the league last season.

“I’m comfortable with the system, the playbook. And this is a good team. They were real close last year. They were on the brink of making it to the Super Bowl,” Iloka said after his first practice, about five hours after boarding a plane for Minnesota. “I’m just here to help this team out anyway I can. My relationship with Zim, this facility, the kind of team that they have made it a no brainer.”

The Bengals released Iloka on Sunday to clear $5.3 million in salary cap space and make way for second-round draft pick Jessie Bates III to move into a starting role. Iloka was a fifth-round pick by the Bengals out of Boise State in 2012 and played two seasons in Zimmer’s defense before the coach was hired by the Vikings. Iloka became a starter in his second year and started 76 games for the Bengals, with nine career interceptions. Credited by the team with 230 tackles over that time, Iloka is 10th on the all-time Bengals list in that category.

“He’s very smart. He’s a good tackler. He’s going to be where he’s supposed to be all the time. He pretty much knows a lot of the things that we’re doing,” Zimmer said. “Most of the calls we went through today, he knew probably 85 percent of them.”

All-Pro Harrison Smith is entrenched at one of the safety spots. Andrew Sendejo has mostly manned the other slot for the last five years, starting 53 games plus three more in the playoffs. He’ll turn 31 on Sept. 9, when the Vikings open the season against San Francisco. Naturally, there’s a question now about whether Sendejo will celebrate that birthday in a purple uniform Adidas Shea Weber Jersey , considering he’s carrying a $3.5 million salary cap hit. With Anthony Harris and Jayron Kearse, the Vikings have two backups who’ve been in their system for two-plus seasons and contribute significantly on special teams.

“This wasn’t a move to replace anyone. This was a move to get as many good players as we can,” Zimmer said. “He became available, so we were fortunate.”

That could be more than just coach speak from Zimmer, who has said previously he’d like to use more of his best players in different positions more often this year to maximize their impact. Smith, for example, could be used in a linebacker spot in certain packages. Veteran cornerback Terence Newman, who played with Iloka with the Bengals, has taken turns at safety.

“Honestly, we’re just trying to add good football players,” Zimmer said, “and it’ll all sort out at the end.”

That’s just fine with Iloka, who was looking forward to working with the hard-driving Zimmer again.

“I grew up in Texas, and that’s how my high school coach was. The linebacker coach at Boise State was the same way,” Iloka said. “I’m used to that style. It doesn’t matter either way. He just has a good defense.”

This is not a rant against cheerleading.

That’s a legitimate sport, played by elite athletes – men and women – who are worthy of admiration for their daring and skill.

There might even come a day when cheerleaders are competing for gold, silver and bronze at the Olympics.

None of which has anything to do with what happens on the sidelines of an NFL or NBA game.

Those are scantily clad performers often leered at by fans – or, as we’re learning Oscar Dansk Jersey , perhaps even worse.

The (hash)MeToo era is the perfect time to retire these objectified, chauvinistic relics (and, while we’re at it, ditto for the barely clothed women who climb into the ring to tell us what round it is at boxing and MMA events).

”There is a misconception that cheerleading is just sideline dancing. This could not be further from the truth,” said Savannah Parrot, an 11th-grade cheerleader at Niwot High School in Colorado. ”Cheerleaders are athletes. We compete in local, state, national and international competition and are evaluated on the difficulty of our routines including advanced tumbling passes and intricate stunt sequences.

”If the NFL and NBA wanted to have cheerleaders,” she went on to say, wise beyond her years, ”I have no doubt that qualified athletes would be honored to represent our sport.”

That’s not what the NFL and NBA want, of course.

They’re looking for attractive dancers showing lots of skin, apparently in the belief that sex is one of the best ways to keep fans entertained beyond the product on the field or court.

And, according to a report by The New York Times , cheerleaders from Washington’s NFL team were forced to play an even seedier role behind the scenes.

During a 2013 trip to Costa Rica, they allege their passports were collected, they were asked to go topless for a calendar photo shoot that included male spectators, and they served as escorts for sponsors at a nightclub. The cheerleaders quoted in the report spoke on condition of anonymity because they signed confidentiality agreements.

The team said it’s concerned by the allegations and conducting an investigation Scott Darling Jersey , but we all know where this is going. Already, team president Bruce Allen said many current and former cheerleaders are contradicting allegations in the report.

At least the NBA had the good sense to break from any pretense that these are cheerleaders, adorning their groups with names such as the Knicks City Dancers and Memphis Grizz Girls. These are dance groups, pure and simple, often performing sex-tinged routines that are a focal point of the between-game entertainment.

In the NFL, the dancers play a less-prominent role (the stadiums, after all, are much larger) but they’re still passed off as cheerleaders, for no apparent reason. They are certainly not there to lead cheers. Their main purpose seems to be wiggling around as provocatively as possible for the men in the crowd, all while ignoring how many women are now in the stands.

This not-so-proud tradition can largely be traced to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders becoming cultural icons in the 1970s, though it’s worth noting that venerable franchises such as the Green Bay Packers, New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers don’t have cheerleading squads.

It doesn’t seem to have hurt their popularity or success on the field.

”It is way past time for the NFL and NBA to get rid of cheerleaders,” said Jeffrey McCall, a professor of media studies at DePauw University in Indiana. ”Other pro sports such as hockey and baseball seem to manage without thinly clad women as part of the game-day experience.”

These faux cheerleaders look increasingly archaic when so many women are stepping forward to say enough’s enough.

”Given today’s concerns about sexual harassment and domestic violence, the NFL and NBA clearly have tin ears in this matter,” McCall said. ”Cheerleaders at pro games don’t really cheer and inspire fans or players anyway. They are simply ornaments.”

That should be offensive to all of us, but especially those who are actual cheerleaders.

Tens of thousands of athletes participate in this rapidly growing sport at competitions around the United States, which prompted Disney to build a new 8 Uchenna Nwosu Color Rush Jersey ,000-seat arena at its Wide World of Sports complex in Florida for those types of events.

In 2016, the International Olympic Committee even recognized cheerleading as a provisional sport , the first step toward possibly claiming a spot at the Summer Games.

Of course, cheerleading also serves as a complement to sports such as football and basketball.

That’s just fine, too.

”It is called cheerleading because their role is to lead the crowd in cheering for the team,” said Shauna MacDonald, assistant director of the Gender & Women Studies Program at Villanova University. ”This, I think, can still be a positive and interesting purpose. Cheering is part of the ritual of sport, especially in North America, and having people to pep up the crowd and lead the cheers is a good thing.

”We know that this doesn’t require cheerleading to look exactly as it does, because bands and pep squads also serve in these roles. In order for the culture of cheerleading to change, however, there would have to be some sweeping cultural shifts.”

There’s no sign of it happening in the NFL or NBA.

Time’s up for cheerleaders or dancers of whatever you want to call them.

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Paul Newberry is a sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry(at)ap.org or at Dallas Cowboys Elite Jerseys