Originally appeared on E! Online
The secret is out: The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders could give any football player on the field a run for his money as far as toughness goes.
“It’s a very demanding job and injuries certainly come with dance,” longtime squad director (and 1980s-era cheerleader) Kelli Finglass told E! News in June. “We have a trainer and we spend more time now with prevention of injuries.”
And in case you hadn’t noticed when 36 women are leaping into the air and flawlessly executing moves in tight synchronicity, “it can be quite aerobic,” Finglass added. “Requires a lot of stamina, a lot of strength and a lot of flexibility.”
Meanwhile, those are the requirements once the dancers are on the team. And that only happens after they’ve made it through the application process, virtual interviews and auditions, a 90-second in-person routine and then a full-on, DCC-choreographed group performance at AT&T Stadium in hopes of being among the chosen who get invited to the team’s seven-week training camp, where they learn roughly 50 dances.
So, yeah, maybe putting on pads and getting tackled by a 275-pound linebacker would be easier. The pay is famously better.
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But as seen on CMT’s Making the Team and Netflix’s hit series America’s Sweethearts, which has been renewed for a second season, becoming a member of this hallowed institution that’s been around since 1961 remains a goal for countless women deep in the heart of Texas and beyond.
“The performances that they will experience are unlike any other,” Finglass said, explaining the enduring appeal. “To perform at an NFL football game is extremely exciting. But the cheerleaders, just this year, for example, have also performed alongside Dolly Parton. They performed in a live concert with Queen and Adam Lambert. They get to make television appearances. We went on a USO tour to South Korea.”
And amid all the excitement, there are “just these great intimate moments of friendship,” she continued, “like witnessing someone getting engaged and being in their wedding…these personal sisterhood-like experiences.”
Though at the end of the day, Finglass said, “I don’t think anybody, if they watch the [Netflix] series, would think that it’s easy to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.”
With more eyes on the DCC now than ever, the squad is spilling secrets about what really comes with the territory. Get the details:
Jump Splits Look Painful Because They Are
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ signature jump splits take their toll, according to alum Caroline Sundvold, who appeared in the Netflix docuseries American Sweethearts with her younger sister and DCC hopeful Anna Kate Sundvold.
A doctor told Caroline she needed surgery following four seasons of jump-splitting her joints into a permanently injured state, as she shared on the show, “but a hip surgery like that is a good three to six months recovery. I was like, ‘I really want to do one more year of cheerleading.’ I just wanted to push through.”
She finally had the operation after her fifth season, Caroline noting that the sacrifice was totally worth it. But the foot surgery she underwent next was surprisingly more traumatic.
“You would think hip surgery would be a little worse,” Caroline said. “But the foot has so many nerves in it. So from the [end-of-season] banquet until now I’ve just been recovering a lot, which has been a bit of a wake-up call.”
Ouch, but OK
America’s Sweetheart standout Madeline Salter, who’s back cheering for the Cowboys’ 2024 NFL season, has documented more treatment sessions on her Instagram than most, including visits to Kinetic Centre, a spine and sports rehab clinic, to vanquish tension headaches and get her feet taped.
Her chiropractic sports practitioner Dr. Kristina Myles noted in a post showing Salter getting worked on, “our focus is primarily correcting facial layers that can cause pain, stiffness, or loss of range of motion when injured or overworked.”
Don’t Quit Your Week-Day Job
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are always ready for some football, but the gig of a lifetime is also not the main event as far as income goes.
ESPN reported in 2017 that NFL team cheerleaders made roughly $75 to $150 per game, an eye-opening moment for fans who assumed those glamorous performers were making bank. Or at least a living wage.
As seen in America’s Sweethearts, DCC alum Kelcey Wetterberg is a pediatric registered nurse, while then-newcomer Reece Allman (née Weaver), who returned for the 2024 season, worked at a Dallas florist to supplement her earnings from cheerleading.
According to the Dallas Morning News, cheerleader pay has since risen to closer to $400 per game, plus hourly wages for all the time spent preparing for games and making appearances.
Still, DCC alum Kat Puryear said on the Netflix show, “I would say I’m making, like, a substitute teacher [salary]…I would say I’m making, like, Chick-fil-A worker that works full-time” money.
Calendar Girl
Megan McElaney, also back for 2024, gave a video-montage glimpse of her typical day as “an NFL cheerleader with three jobs,” starting with her 6:15 a.m. wakeup call.
In addition to her full-time job as a marketing/recruiting coordinator at Bluecrest Financial Alliances, per LinkedIn, she has added makeup artist for The Styling Stewardess to her resume—and when all that work is done, it’s off to AT&T Stadium for evening practice, which ends at 11 p.m.
Body Politic
Maintaining peak fitness is part of the gig, but custom uniforms tailored for each cheerleader’s shape have helped the organization move past a more body-image-obsessed era.
“Trying to make that uniform fit and and have the most beautiful lines, we don’t talk about weight,” DCC director since 1991 Kelli Finglass told E! News. “The girls are all very good with their own nutrition, their own personal workouts. We have a gym adjacent to our dance studio,” plus nutritionists and mental health experts available for consultation.
The women are free to focus on their own personal regimens, “and we try to provide resources and educate them,” Finglass said. “We leave it at that. And I think we’re better for that.”
The DCC audition FAQ section on their website advises, “You should look well-proportioned in dancewear. We DO NOT have specific height and weight requirements.”
A Classic Institution
As the World Turns
While the institution has certainly evolved over the years (the star-spangled uniforms didn’t even make their debut until 1972), the DCC organization isn’t all that different from when it began.
“I think everything around the cheerleaders has changed,” Finglass told the New York Times. “And they’re adapting to many things like social media and visibility. But at the core, they are world-class dancers, and a big part of what they do requires a servant’s heart. That has been the case throughout our entire history.”
Ps & Qs
Another resource at the ready: an etiquette coach.
“They go to dinners with high-ranking military officials,” Finglass explained to the Times, “so they are put in situations that they may not have been exposed to yet as an 18- or 19-year-old from a small town.”
And since people get so excited to see the DCC all around the world, she continued, “I love them learning all the different facets and being polished and poised and prepared. All I’m trying to do is give them every tool possible, so they can be confident.”
The Glam Squad? You’re Looking at Them
While they’re free to seek out assistance, and they have dedicated makeup artists for photo shoots, the ladies are responsible for doing their own hair and makeup before games. (Sophy Laufer, on the squad since 2022, has done a full tutorial on how she gets her glamorous game day glow on TikTok.)
Among the aesthetic rules: No red lips and no red nails. Plus, hair must always be worn down, and Dallas’ Tangerine Salon has been keeping the ladies’ locks bouncy for years.
Sheer Energy Legs
You can have the most perfectly shaped, smoothest, most blemish-free legs of all time— they’re still getting encased in nude hosiery if you’re a DCC.
Also, if you have a tattoo, that’s fine—but it has to be completely masked with makeup and bronzer for games.
Bronze Medal
They Don’t Just Cheer
The DCC are also pillars of their community, which choreographer Judy Trammell was happy to see reflected in America’s Sweethearts.
She lamented that their longrunning CMT reality show Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, which ended in 2022 after 16 seasons, “didn’t show the things we do the rest of the year,” Trammell told Entertainment Tonight. “The USO tours, the veterans hospital, the children’s hospital visits. We do so much more than has ever been seen.”
Post-Cheer Support System
There’s actually a squad to join after you leave the team, Finglass told E! News, “a very active and engaging alumni association that’s called The Spirit of DCC.”
Because not all that unlike getting out of the military, when someone retires from cheerleading it’s admittedly “a big lifestyle change to go from seeing your teammates every night at rehearsals to not,” the DCC director explained. “That’s why we try to supplement that immediately with alumni activities. Because it is sad for all of us.”
Noting that the ladies go on to share major milestones—such as weddings, and then their kids‘ weddings—for years after their cheering days are done, Finglass added, “I feel like a school teacher, and when your students graduate, you’re always excited for the new freshman class. But of course you have emotions, and you have relationships that you know are not going to be seen or felt on a daily basis.”
(Originally published July 27, 2024, at 5 a.m. PT)
