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In honor of National Cheerleading Month and Week, we’ve already addressed high school and college pom-poms, pro football boosters, and NFL squad’s scandals. Now let’s focus our attention on the celebrities who paved the way for their future stardom by backing … and fronting … National Football League franchises!

“There isn’t any league position on nudity,” longtime NFL director of public relations Jim Heffernan announced when pro cheerleaders first gained fame … and a few showed their frame. “It’s up to the individual clubs. We have no statement or anything to say about nudity.” And they never have.

But then, there’s posed nudity … versus accidental exposures—which are bound to happen—and we’re bound and determined to capture.

As the seminal study on the cheer phenomenon, Go! Fight! Win!, observed back in 1995: “The uniforms worn by professional cheerleaders are the most conspicuous aspect of the media image and are more akin to showgirl costumes than to outfits worn by school and college cheerleaders. Cut low to show cleavage (below left), cut high to show thigh (below right), uniforms for professional cheerleaders send a message at odds with the behavioral standards enforced by team officials.

“From the 1970s to the present, the norm has been provocative, revealing costumes for professional cheerleaders. They had to be wholesome … as long as they were sexually appealing too.” Though if they had to choose between the two …

Maybe it’s time for Jacksonville's Jaguars to change their name to another kind of ‘cat.’

“I can see what this game is coming to,” warned John Madden in 1978 {he used to be a coach before he was a game}. “Choreographers instead of coaches. It will be a contest to judge which set of girls gets more TV time. The losing choreographer will tell the press, ‘We lost our momentum … We’ll have to regroup, go back to fundamentals.’

“And after the girls have competed, the football players will come out at halftime for their exhibition, but the press won’t notice because they’ll be too busy watching replays of the hottest cheerleaders.”

Which is the breast way to spot those split second glimpses of girl flesh offered up on any given Sunday around the league. “Did you think people went to football games for the actual sport itself?” asked iDistracted.net. “That’s a resounding nope. The main event is always on the sidelines.

“Cheerleading is a physical profession, and when there’s a lot of sweating and running makeup involved, you can expect a few insane wardrobe mishaps to occur.”

So, before Sleuth gets to listing his Top Ten NFL Cheerleaders Who Became Stars … let’s warm up with his Five Favorite FootballFallouts of All Time from the supposed “No Fun League.”

5. Washington Redskins Tampa Bay Buccaneers

“Redskinettes were prohibited from wearing underpants with their uniforms,” reveals Go! Fight! Win! “Panty lines were considered unprofessional {including down south in Tampa, above right}. In 1991, a Redskinette was benched for wearing briefs with her costume.”

4. Seattle Seahawks Miami Dolphins

“Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were required to wear bras with their uniforms.” Not so this pair of squads.

3.Philadelphia Eagles

“So many dance groups adopted sexy uniforms that, by 1981, Philadelphia opted for a more conservative, collegiate look as a novelty,” Go! Fight! Win! continues. “Liberty Belles director Caroline Cullum outfitted the squad in ‘angora sweaters and pleated skirts,’ saying she wanted the Belles ‘to be more like traditional cheerleaders, but still sexy.’ The Liberty Belles’ brief collegiate experiment was an aberration.” As was this equally brief Eighties exposure!

“Becoming Head Cheerleader: 4 Years Training,” one wag wrote of the hairy moment. “Cheerleader Costume: $67.95. Pom-Poms: $15 each. White Sports Shoes: $95. Kicking your leg and showing the team your unshaven Meat-Curtains: PRICELESS!!!”

2. Washington Redskins

“Janet Jackson Redux!” read a report of Sleuth’s hometown honey {he was at the game and spotted the dame}. “Oops, I guess bras don’t work the way they used to.”

1. New England Patriots

This magic moment came about—and out!—on September 26, 2010 in Foxborough, Mass. as the Patriots proved too much for the Bills 38-30, behind 3 TD passes from … well, you know. And you know we’d have to make it our No. 1 favorite fallout—these guys always find a way to win!

As least they don’t place anyone on Sleuth’s Top Ten Celebs who went from theSidelines to the Headlines! {We chose only those whose fame extended well beyond those days.} As might be expected, all but three of these future stars cheered for a team on the West Coast—close to Hollywood—with a pair of those getting equal exposure fronting for the Cowboys. Starting with …

BONNIE-JILL LAFLINDallas Cowboy Cheerleaders (1996)

3rd from right in row 2 {marked with a BJ} in the 1996 team photo—she must be a good luck charm because they haven’t gone farther in the playoffs since.

“The only full nudes I’ve done are when I was a cheerleader for the Cowboys,” she confides. Asked if she ever dated a player, Laflin laughs: “Not while I was cheerleading. I could get kicked off the team. But my current boyfriend is a retired basketball player, Ron Harper of the Lakers—the franchise that’s made her the NBA’s firstever female scout and assistant general manager!

San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush (1994-1995)

“Cheering at the Super Bowl (inset above) was the most amazing experience,” Bonnie-Jill gushes. “Being in front of all those fans and being so young (just 20) and actually winning was incredible!”

Let’s face it—she’s a winner: Voted NBA Cheerleader of the Year for the Golden State Warriors the season before joining the 49ers “dynasty,” and picked to be cover girl for the Cowboys calendar, BJ now has five championship rings: one from the San Fran Super Bowl in 1995 and four from the Lakers (2001-02 2009-10). “So I’m still two up on LeBron!” she boasts.

JENILEE HARRISONLos Angeles Rams Embraceable Ewes (1978-1980)

“That was a fabulous experience,” the future Three’s Company and Dallas star recalls of making the first-ever Los Angeles squad {she’s cheeky #5 on the team poster}. “People would say, ‘Aren’t they using you?’ But we were also using them, too.” Particularly the players she dated during her tenure and beyond: defensive back Jeff Severson and All-Pro offensive tackle Dennis Harrah.

“Jenilee’s got a helluva body with great breasts,” raved Billy Travilla, the designer who dressed her on Dallas. “They are very firm and very high.”

And very high profile in this 1978 clip from CHiPs (with a few Ewes) that first got her noticed ... and led to Jen replacing contract holdout Suzanne Somers (as her "cousin") on Three's Company that same year:

PATTY KOTEROLos Angeles Rams Embraceable Ewes (1978-1979)

Kneeling in the front of our hot-selling Rams poster with Jenilee, on the second page of her tryout questionnaire (the top sheet is above) Patty typed: “Was in 20 beauty pageants and won 18 of them.” Note the "No"-tation at top left that she was initially rejected, but ...

... “I wanted them to stand up as individuals,” recalls producer David Mirisch, who picked the final squad. “A group of distinct types and more ethnically diverse than the Cowboys cheerleaders. So there was girl-next-door Jenilee Harrison contrasted with dark siren Patty” (above right). Who parlayed her place on the team into a starring role in the 1980 Mexican-made film Amor Ciego (‘Blind Love’), above left. Careful: ‘You could go blind …’

She listed her measurements as 36-24-35 on the Ewes questionnaire—fully displayed as she shook her pom-poms after making the cut (above left). Switching to her middle name of Apollonia, Patty replaced Vanity in singer Prince’s heart … and got the part … in 1984’s Purple Rain {based on the breakup}. “I’m going to show him I’m fearless and I’m going to take off my clothes and jump in,” Apollonia says of the scene filmed on frigid Lake Minnetonka. “That was part of the deal, you know: topless (above right). I come from a family where we’re top-heavy woman, and I’m very modest, so I was shy. And I vividly remember the director says, ‘Don’t worry, when you’re walking towards camera I’m cropping above.” Shouldn’t have believed that guy …

TERI HATCHERSan Francisco 49ers Gold Rush (1984)

The future ‘Desperate Housewife’ admits she “dumped my plans to study science at Cal Poly to become a 49ers cheerleader at age 19.” And got her Super Bowl Ring a decade before Bonnie-Jill Laflin … when the team went 15-1 in her only year (above left). “That was a long time ago,” Teri recently reflected, “but a great memory. Go Niners!” Of her first nude scene exactly 10 years later in The Cool Surface, the gal who told Seinfeld the year before that her breasts “are real, and they’re spectacular,” reasoned: “Every woman should pick the part of her body that she really likes. In my case, it’s my nipples” (above right).

Nowadays Teri only wears her Super Bowl ring “during the season” … but she didn’t wear a thing for the best balcony scene since Shakespeare in Heaven’s Prisoners (1996, above). “Mommy,” she reveals her young daughter Emerson asked afterwards, “why do you have a hairy vagina?”

GRETCHEN STOCKDALE Los Angeles Raiderettes (1986-1992)

First a member of the St. Louis Football CardinalsBig Red Line of cheerleaders while attending the University of Missouri, the 34C-24-35 blonde beauty moved to L.A. to get her Masters degree in Communication: “Due to her positive experience as a member of the Big Red Line,” according to her IMDb bio, “Gretchen decided she would audition for the [Raiders troupe], was selected on the first try and was a member for 6 years”—honored as Raiderette of the Year in 1989. As well as Wet Dream of the Team (above rt.)!

“Being a Raiderette is the only ‘constant’ in my life so far,” Stockdale stated on her 1992 trading card. “I love it and love the fans.” One of whom was former USC standout O.J. Simpson, who left this message on her answering machine at 7:35 p.m. on June 12, 1994: “Hey Gretchen, sweetheart, it’s Orenthal James, who is finally at a place in his life where he is, like, totally unattached with everybody.” Three hours later Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman were slain!

Visitors to Simpson’s “secret hideaway” after the not guilty verdict “were astonished to find a seductive Gretchen wearing a slinky nightie and lying next to O.J. in his bed.”

MARLIECE ANDRADA Oakland Raiderettes (1995-1996)

“Raider Rah Rah!” she raved in one article—having been chosen ‘Most Photogenic Cheerleader’ in the team’s first season back in Oakland. Shortly thereafter, the 35D-24-35 California Girl won the Catalina Tropic Babe pageant—which eventually led to the role of lifeguard Skylar Bergman on Baywatch. She certainly has the flotation D•vices.

“Nudity? No problem,” Marliece mused. “I have no inhibitions.” Sign us 'up'!

CHARISMA CARPENTERSan Diego Charger Girls (1991)

A cheerleader at Bonita Vista High in San Diego, Charisma graduated to the NFL Chargers squad (2nd row center, above left). “I was the weakest link,” she laughs. Hardly, while on the squad she managed to fight off a serial rapist at gunpoint who'd just shot her two male friends … and helped get him caught and convicted.

“It’s a lot of work,” Carpenter—who gained fame playing cheerleader Cordelia Chase on Buffy the VampireSlayer and its spinoff Angel—recalls of her sidelines gig, for which she shared league honors (above left). “And you can’t fraternize” with the players. As usual with the Chargers, their loss (above right).

SARAH SHAHIDallas Cowboy Cheerleaders (1999-2000)

“To be ‘beautiful’ in Texas, you had to be blonde and blue-eyed and have a name like Ann,” says the Persian direct descendent of the Shah of Iran born Aahoo Jahansouz in 1980. “Growing up, my mom told us to embrace ourboobs like we embrace our hands” {hence the term Texas Hold ’em, above right). “In college {at SMU}, I was in the musical Chicago. Everyone knew I wanted to be an actress, so they said, ‘Why don’t you try out for the Cowboys Cheerleaders?’ because they’d been on Saturday Night Live. So I figured that would be my way in. I tried out just to get on SNL.”

And landed on the team (above left) and the cover of its Year 2000 Swimsuit Calendar! “NFL cheerleading is harder than most people think,” Sarah smiles. “They train up to six hours every day with games on Sunday. They gave me a great work ethic.” Put to good use in her first film, Old School (2003): “My character attends a blow job class,” she confides, “and being the Method actress that I thought I was, I went ahead and took a real blow job class myself because I wanted to be really good in the scene.” Looks good to go a•head (above right)!

LISA GUERREROLos Angeles Rams Embraceable Ewes (1983-1987)

“I was really young, only 18. when I tried out with over a thousand girls for 7 spots with the Rams,” Lisa recalls—at the time she was cheering for Golden West College and flaunting her big hair (above left) … and later her even bigger pair (above right). “We were known as the ‘Los Angeles Rams Cheerleading Entertainers (that was the official nickname) and the ‘Less Hot Professional Cheerleaders of Los Angeles (that was the unofficial nickname. The Raiderettes were hotter than we were due to their bigger pom-poms.” We largely doubt that!

Guerrero went on to become the Entertainment Director for the team, then the E.D. {and a sure cure for Erectile Dysfunction} with the Falcons and the Patriots. But, she insists: “Once a Rams cheerleader (above left), always a Rams cheerleader” … and as Chief Investigative Correspondent for Inside Edition, she joined the current L.A. squad and proved she could still fit into her 30-year-old uniform:

Last, but not least, there’s George Clooney’s former flame and fanboy fantasy …

STACY KEIBLER Baltimore Ravens Cheerleaders (1998-1999)

“I was a dancer my whole life until I got to high school {an all-girls Catholic one} and got into cheerleading. At 18 she made the very first team of Ravens rooters (above left)—due largely to her famous 42-inch long legs and ability to leg press 405 pounds! Pro wrestling “recognized her potential” and lured her away from pro cheerleading after one year … dubbing her “Miss Hancock”—who quickly became the rage of the cage (above right)!

Twice turning down “offers to pose for Playboy magazine,” the Good Catholic Girl retains fond memories of her Ravens days: “Purple has always been one of my favorite colors (above left), so naturally that was my favorite thing about my Ravens uniform (above right). My least favorite thing would have to be wearing next tonothing when at times it was freezing and snowing out.”

She’s even designed a line of Ravens gear for the NFL Women’s Apparel shop and vows: “I’m with them through thick and thin.” Still thin after giving birth at age 34, Stacy states she’d be willing to don her old baremidriff uniform (above) again to help a team that’s missed the playoffs the past two seasons: “I am a loyal Baltimore Ravens fan, and if duty called, of course I would.”

And she could Poe•tentionally fill it evermore since, she smiles: “God has blessed me with legs and ass.”

There’s just no END to the superlatives summoned for Keibler’s keister!