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Jump Splits Look Painful Because They Are
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.”
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“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.”
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Ouch, but OK
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.”
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Don’t Quit Your Week-Day Job
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.
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Calendar Girl
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.
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Body Politic
“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.”
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Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
A Classic Institution
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.”
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Ps & Qs
“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.”
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The Glam Squad? You’re Looking at Them
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.
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Sheer Energy Legs
Also, if you have a tattoo, that’s fine—but it has to be completely masked with makeup and bronzer for games.
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Bronze Medal
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They Don’t Just Cheer
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.”
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Post-Cheer Support System
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.”
