Another former Texans cheerleader recently joined one of the two lawsuits recently filed against the NFL team “overpayment and workplace issues.” According to the former cheerleader, Angelina Rosa, “cheer director Alto Gary derided her as 'skinny fat' and applied duct tape to her stomach before a 2017 game.” A two-year member of the Texans cheerleading squad, Rosa was also a “dancer for the Chicago Bulls and a member of the Astros' Shooting Stars group,” and is now the 10th cheerleader to join the legal battle against the team.The lawsuit Rosa joined was filed by Gloria Allred, a women's rights attorney, and Houston attorney Kimberly Spurlock. While speaking at a news conference in New York near the NFL's offices, Rosa detailed out how she was treated as a cheerleader for the Texans. Standing next to Allred, she discussed the duct tape incident, saying that “Gary told her to stay behind in the cheerleaders' dressing room as the rest of the squad left for the field before a game.” She added, “As former cheerleaders looked on, Gary applied duct tape to her body without asking her consent to do so.” She said, “Gary told her 'this will hurt a bit' and said she allowed the taping to continue even though she felt humiliated and ashamed of her own body.”

Texans Cheerleaders; image courtesy of Ed Schipul via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org

Standing at 5 feet 4 and 125 pounds, Rosa said the “taping was painful. My skin was being torn because of the movements of dancing...I stand here today to try to make sure no other girl or woman has to endure this same humiliation.”In addition to the duct tape incident, she also said Gary would frequently use the phrase 'skinny fat' to “refer to women who didn't have the abs or the dimensions or the perfection that is required.” She added that she felt pressure to limit her “diet to popcorn and water in an effort to avoid gaining weight,” and said, “I'm appalled at the way I treated myself.”On top of complaints voiced by Rosa, both of the two lawsuits against the Texans accuse the team of “failing to pay minimum wage and overtime for hours spent on the job and other workplace violations.”In response to the allegations detailed out in both lawsuit, the Texans have denied everything and even filed motions for dismissal. If the suits aren't dismissed, the team wants “them delayed while allegations are submitted to arbitration before NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.”Since the lawsuits were filed, many former cheerleaders have stepped forward with detailed accounts of how they were treated and the abuses they endured.

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Another former Texans cheerleader joins lawsuit against team6th ex-NFL cheerleader joins lawsuit against Houston Texans