The Sooners cheerleading team disbanded in the aftermath of an \u0027offensive\u0027 text exchange with the team\u0027s new owner and football coach
The Canadian Junior Football League confirmed Ling is under investigation by the league’s disciplinary committee over a string of text messages exchanged between Ling and former cheer team coach Kelly Nightingale.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
Nightingale was offended by Ling’s remarks. “Cheerleading is an Olympic sport now. We are a sport of our own and we’re athletes just the same,” she said. “It’s no longer about the look. It’s about the athleticism.”Ling, in an interview, acknowledged sending the texts but said they require “much-needed context.”Article content
The ceremony was a tremendous honour for Ling, he said, and highlighted his achievements in the Sooners’ dramatic turnaround during his short time in charge. “We did the best we could,” he said. “But with no other eyewitnesses to some of these comments, it was hard to find a definitive answer.” One of those girls, Nightingale said, was “by far the best dancer” at the audition and clearly had the skills to withstand the rigours of the season.
“If I decided to put players on the roster just because they were nice people then I wouldn’t be doing my job which this is,” his text message read, in part. “We discussed this from the outset and I made myself clear on this issue so it will need to be addressed. We are cutting others as well so it’s simply a matter of they aren’t what we are looking for.”Article content
“I fully respect that it’s a sport, but it’s the way it’s expressed and presented sometimes,” Ling said, comparing the presentation and outfits with women’s beach volleyball. “These were all things that were running through my mind, but I said to , ‘This is not about size. This is about overall fitness.’”Prior to purchasing the Sooners, Ling was involved in some unrelated controversy from his role as founder and managing director of Arlington Group, Inc., a security firm that was awarded a $35 million contract from the Nunavut government in 2020 to oversee two “isolation hubs” during the pandemic.
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