Are NFL cheerleaders going the way of stewardesses?

[Rain Man]

Back in the 60s when discrimination was fine and we had a gogo economy, stwardesses had age and weight limits. Then the government decided that was illegal, and now when you combine that with the maturity of the airline industry we've got stewardesses who ... um ... are not subject to age and weight limits. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and if the plane is going to crash it's probably better to have a highly experienced flight attendant screaming since their voices probably aren't as shrill.

But I've noticed the last couple of NFL games I've seen, there have been cheerleaders who look like they're eligible to run for the presidency. I started thinking about this, and don't remember when all the teams started getting cheerleaders. (And yeah, I know that there were cheerleaders back in the 60s, but I'm talking about cheerleaders who wear skimpy clothes and don't carry megaphones and shake their pompons more forcefully.) The Cowboys had them back in the early 80s, and I bet the other teams started getting them in the late 80s. Is the NFL cheerleader industry now mature, and we're going to see the veterans hanging on like Brett Favre in sequins?