Through the magic of one of my favorite websites in the history of the world, Newsvoyager.com, I'm often whisked from newspaper Web site to newspaper Web site, spanning the sports pages around this country with ridiculous ease.

As I was in the midst of my daily "tour de fishwrap" late Wednesday night, I came across the following story by Alexi Friedman in The Newark Star-Ledger.

Before you go forward with my column, give this link a read.

OK, the crux of the Star-Ledger article is this -- cheerleaders at some New Jersey high schools have been exempt (just like varsity athletes) from having to participate in gym classes because the participation in cheerleading by some districts has been deemed an adequate showing that, well, you're fit enough and athletic enough to not have to participate in phys-ed class.

Some school districts have also refused to deem cheerleading a sport, thus the cheerleaders are required to go out there with the rest of the "non-athletes" and participate in kickball, street hockey, dodgeball and all those other rigorous athletic endeavors that physical education teachers put their classes through even though some of those teachers don't look like they could so much as bang out one pull-up.

So, is cheerleading a sport or isn't it? I consider myself a pretty good athlete and have friends who have been very, very good athletes. I've got a few friends who were Division I scholarship football players and, when I look at them, I know that they could never do some of the things that cheerleaders do.

And there is no way that I could do those flying stunts and it is an iron-clad safe bet that if I ever attempted one of those maneuvers where a cheerleader does back-flips the length of the basketball floor, I'd be on my can by about the first half rotation.

That said, is what they do enough that these young ladies should be considered athletes?

After all, there is no ball involved. Isn't that what differentiates a sport from simply an activity?

Should the cheerleaders, in New Jersey and everywhere else, be considered in the same vain as basketball players, football stars, baseball heroes and the like?

Let me know what you think about the issue.

Is cheerleading a sport?

Isn't it?

Why or why not?

Shoot me an e-mail with your thoughts on the issue and, when this column runs again on Tuesday, I'll post some of the better responses.

Get your emails to me by Monday at 8 a.m. and, as always, include your first name and hometown if you'd like your suggestion reviewed for possible inclusion to the followup column.