Now you went and pissed off a cheerleader.

Your Militia Cheerleader is not happy. The past two weeks have been rough for the family of the Militia family; two former players lost close family members, and I lost my stepdad to cancer. Coping with the emotional and logistical fallout of having a parent die takes up an awful lot of time and energy, so I have not been in the football mindset for a few weeks now. I just started to come out of this fog and get excited about the game against DC on Saturday, and then someone sent me a link to this.

In addition to being utterly classless, it’s fundamentally disrespectful. It’s tantamount to saying “Hey, we think a Boston vs. DC football game is not, by itself, entertaining enough to draw a crowd – so we’re gonna fall back on trite cliches about girlfights in hopes of gaining a larger audience.” It brought back up one of the lowest moments in modern women’s football history – and the sole reason, I believe, that Boston didn’t win last year’s national championship. THAT’S what we’re gonna revisit and promote? Really?

This ad embarrasses me. It makes me embarrassed on behalf of the Militia organization. When the Militia went to DC a few weeks ago, I spent a fair amount of time wondering what the first meeting after the brawl would look like. You know what it looked like? The DC Divas players presented the Boston Militia players with little blue and yellow ribbons to wear in support of Boston after the Marathon bombs. The DC players wore them as well. That small gesture meant a lot to me – and, I would imagine, to many of the Boston players as well. It acknowledged that there were things way bigger than baggage between two football organizations.

One of my favorite things in the world is when a player from one team – doesn’t matter what sport – helps a player from the opposing team stand up. Seriously, it’s like my faith in humanity is boosted way up when I see that happen. The thing with DC and the ribbons made me feel like that.

And what does the Militia management do in return? DERP DIDJA SEE THAT BRAWL DERP. Honestly, this was the only good thing to come out of that bullshit, and it was definitely not good enough to warrant bringing that game back to the spotlight.

So yeah, some of my bad mood is probably carryover from what’s happened in my family. But there is also a fair amount of legitimate disgust that would definitely exist even if the other stuff in the past few weeks hadn’t happened. And here’s something that’s really bothering me about that ad: did Militia management not KNOW that it was stupid and degrading? Or did they just not CARE? Frankly, both options suck.