The Missouri Valley Conference isn’t letting anyone do cheer routines that involve throwing people into the air or stacking people higher than two levels during the MVC women’s tournament this week. The new rules are a reaction to the SIU cheerleader, Kristi Yamaoka, falling this past weekend and cracking her neck. You’ve probably seen the clip of her cheering as she’s stretchered out.

So, no jumping high, none of the really athletic things, nothing that some fans actually like to see. Oh, so it’ll be a lot like women’s basketball? Cool.

Not to be callous, but… you know, when someone gets hurt in a football game, they don’t change the rules of football. And there’s no doubt that cheerleading is an athletic activity, and these women are doing risky, athletic things… and hey, sometimes people get hurt. You don’t change the entire nature of the activity because someone suffers an injury… I think Kristi Yamaoka would agree with me.

Of course, I feel bad for her, and I want her to heal quickly… because the show must go on. I mean, what kind of an upskirt view am I going to get if they can’t go more than two levels high? I’m going to have to set up an elaborate system of mirrors, and that’s just really inconvenient.

Anyway… sorry for the cheerleading post. I’ll go back to being male very soon.