Two bits. Four bits. Naughty bits.

It has always been a roll-your-eyes sort of proposition, ever since the Dallas Cowboys trotted out  its chorus line of young women in hotpants and white go-go boots.

NFL cheerleaders are not your average high school cheerleaders, nor your average college cheerleaders. They are not there to pump up the crowd, even though NFL teams (allegedly) have strict rules about what their cheerleaders can and cannot do in terms of fraternization, and even though many of the cheerleaders are older, educated women with professional careers.

But let's face it: The league puts them out there to make its product sexier. They put them out there to add something extra to your regularly scheduled Sunday afternoon violence. That's the great unspoken here, and none of the cowflop the NFL puts out there about professionalism and integrity can erase the wink-wink, nudge-nudge that comes with it.

So I suppose we shouldn't be all that surprised that at least one organization apparently decided implication wasn't enough.

That would be the Washington Redskins, owned by the despicable Daniel Snyder, whose organization once sued a woman who broke her season-ticket contract because Danny Boy had jacked the prize beyond what she could pay. These are the sort of people who'd run over their grandmother if she stood between them and a dollar lying on the sidewalk.

They're also the sort of people who allegedly dispensed with the wink and nudge and decided to treat their cheerleaders -- again, older, educated women in a lot of cases -- like street-corner hookers.

According to claims made in a report in the New York Times, the Redskins cheerleaders were required to pose topless for a photo shoot in 2013, to which the club invited spectators. Some were then required to attend a nightclub event as escorts for some of the team's male sponsors. The cheerleaders said no sex was involved, but, still. All of this occurred on a trip to Costa Rica for which they were not paid.

Also among their duties was an annual boat trip with sponsors in which some of the cheerleaders claimed to have been dragged into below-decks twerking contests with cash prizes.

And, OK, here is the part where reasonable people can say one of two things. One, why the hell didn't the cheerleaders (again, many of them older, educated professionals) just tell the Redskins to stick it? And, two, clearly the ones talking to the Times did tell them to stick it.

In the meantime, the Redskins responded the way you'd expect a corporate entity to respond, with a lot of sweet corporate nothings.

"The Redskins' cheerleader program is one of the NFL's premier teams in participation, professionalism and community service," they said in a statement. "Each Redskin cheerleader is contractually protected to ensure a safe and constructive environment ..."

Which I guess means that boat they wind up on every year is entirely seaworthy.

Wink-wink. Nudge-nudge.