Song Girl Natalie Says: Farewell

WeAreSC.com does a nice job conducting what it calls “exit interviews” with outgoing senior football players. I like reading them because they help fill time between Signing Day and Spring Football, while also confirming that current student-athletes are learning what it means to be part of the Trojan Family.

However ... WeAreSC took a detour yesterday to interview (so to speak) Natalie Nelson about her thoughts (so to speak) regarding her career as a USC Song Girl. It was titled: “Exit Interview: Natalie.”

Of course, Beano read the article and cried. Me? I just about fell asleep.

No disrespect to the interviewer David Chung, but this is the fluffiest fluff piece that has ever been fluffed. In fact, the piece is so fluffy that Chung never mentions Nelson’s last name, as if she’s some sort of character in a reality TV show.

Not that we should expect much in the way of hard hitting issues here, but Chung could have asked Nelson at least a few questions that incorporate the words "bad timing” or “wedgy” ... just to keep things interesting.

After all, Nelson has been the quintessential (if not stereotypical) USC Song Girl for the last couple of years. She’s been a co-captain of the squad. She dated a captain of the football team, linebacker Dallas Sartz. She’s the daughter of Song Girl coach Lori Nelson. She's performed through injuries. She was on the cover of Los Angeles Magazine (left), and she’s posed toward the center of most Song Girl group photos, because -- let’s be honest -- she’s a strikingly beautiful blond who looks great in a Song Girl sweater and skirt.

However ... she is also responsible for this, ...


... and she is the inspiration for this ...


... and this, ...


... which subsequently led to these, ...



... the production of this, ...

... and the over-exposure (so to speak) of this ...


Not to mention her attendance in Senora Ross’s “Spanish III” class.

Yes, we know Nelson isn’t directly responsible for the “wedgy,” but she certainly set the precedent for the college football blogger geek frenzy that resulted from it.

Of course, we’re not complaining about this stuff. We always laugh with the Song Girls, not at them. So, again, you’d think Chung could ask at least one question that doesn’t read like a double pompom over the head waving thing (so to speak).

Instead, to her credit, Nelson mentioned her “bad timing” in response to Chung’s 31st fluffy question. This created the only part of the Q&A worth reading:

WEARESC: What are the toughest parts of being a Song Girl and what will you take out of it after you leave USC?

NN: One of the toughest things was definitely the Photoshopping. It was hard to see myself that way because none of the referees hands are up and I’m just there trying to get the crowd pumped up because everyone in the stands was nervous we were going to lose because they were right in front of us. What’s disappointing for me is that I really know football, maybe even more than anyone on the squad. I’ve grown up around football and I know the sport. It was hard because I know the sport and the picture was just taken at the wrong place, wrong time, and then Photoshopped.

“Photoshopped.” It almost makes you feel sorry for Nelson, if not for her other answers about focusing on a modeling career, doing charity work -- and anything else she might have said before I fell asleep -- all of which tells us that she’ll never have to hold down a real job … ever.

“Such is the life” (as Nestor puts it) of a infamous USC Song Girl. Just another thing to make the jealous “nation” more jealous … and bring Beano to tears.

Fight On!
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