Tony La Russa’s daughter injured herself, is no longer a Raiderette

In April, we shared a story about the daughter of St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa earning a spot on the Oakland Raiders cheerleading squad. Like many a promising Raiders rookie, Bianca La Russa didn't last long in the NFL; the daughter of the future baseball Hall of Famer injured herself before the season and never debuted on the Oakland sidelines.


Busted Coverage has been all over this story like The New York Times on the Pentagon Papers. The site discovered the disappointing news on Bianca's Twitter page earlier this week:

I hurt my back pretty badly — herniated 3 discs. I'm out for the season.

Three herniated discs? Look, I've always heard the stories about how cheerleading is dangerous and how its participants suffer the most injuries of any high school sport, but I always assumed it was an urban legend, like Al Davis still being alive . Though NFL cheerleading isn't as involved as the sport at the center of "Bring It On" (which I have not seen multiple times), it still involves enough to get placed on the cheerleading IR. Shoot, over the past few years, the easiest way to get three herniated discs in Oakland was to have the Raiders offensive line blocking for you.