Phyllis Smith, probably best known for her role as the motherly, but somewhat conniving, knitter Phyllis Lapin-Vance on NBC's The Office, has been making the media rounds promoting her new movie Bad Teacher, where she plays a teacher and friend to Cameron Diaz's character.  During this recent media blitz, Smith has been asked about her somewhat colorful past which included spending time as a pre-school teacher, casting agency employee, burlesque dancer and performer and ... NFL cheerleader.  News surfaced several years ago Smith worked as a cheerleader for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1970s. In fact, that nugget of information is part of her bio page on NBC.com.  But the topic has come up again and in a recent interview with Slate.com, Smith talked more about her time working for the team and what NFL cheerleading was like in those days.  "I was at the height of my glory, because I loved dancing and wearing the boots and the hot pants, the tied up shirts, looking really hot. And I was able to dance, I loved football. My dad used to have season tickets, so I was flirting with the guys on the sidelines as much as I could. The organizations make sure that the cheerleaders and the players have minimal contact, but that's what you try to do. It was great, in the '70s."  Rob Sylvester of NBCSports.com's Off The Bench provided the visual proof through St. Louis radio station KYKY and noted the ... we'll go with ... dated hairstyle and that the cheerleaders of the 1970s wore significantly different uniforms than the ones the women who roam the sidelines today wear.  See photos of: NBC, The Office  To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor  . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to  . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to
Phyllis of NBC's 'The Office' was once an NFL cheerleader - Game On!: Covering the Latest Sports News