Cheerleaders for professional sports teams are often dancers with backgrounds in ballet, jazz, modern, hip-hop and tap. After beating out dozens of other dancers for the job, they have a chance to show off the athletic and dancing skills they have honed for years.

But they quickly learn that performing during sporting events is only a small part of their job description. They are also required to fulfill what often becomes the unsavory side of the job: interacting with fans at games and other promotional events, where groping and sexual harassment are common.

In interviews with dozens of current and former cheerleaders — most of them from the NFL, but also representing the NBA and the NHL — they described systematic exploitation by teams that profit by sending them into pregame tailgating and other gatherings where they are subjected to offensive sexual comments and unwanted touches by fans.


“When you have on a push-up bra and a fringed skirt, it can sometimes, unfortunately, feel like it comes with the territory,” said Labriah Lee Holt, a former cheerleader for the Tennessee Titans in the NFL. “I never experienced anything where someone on the professional staff or the team said something or made me feel that way. But you definitely experience that when you encounter people who have been drinking beer.”

Team officials are aware of the situation, the cheerleaders said, but do little to prevent harassment. Cheerleaders for most professional sports teams are required to mingle with fans at games and promotional events where encounters with intoxicated people can be harrowing. A former cheerleader for the Washington Redskins recalled a particularly uncomfortable assignment: She and five teammates were sent to a fan’s home, where several men were drinking and watching a football game.

“There wasn’t any protection from it,” Holt said. “You have to run around the tailgates, go to the tents, mingle with fans and shake the pompoms. And you sometimes get the disgusting old men who have been drinking and will say something inappropriate. It is common, and the industry knows that.”

A longtime cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys recalled a home game when her squad walked near a group of Philadelphia Eagles fans. “We were walking by, waving and smiling, and one guy caught my eye,” said the cheerleader, who requested anonymity because she, like many others, was forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement. “He looked at me and said, ‘I hope you get raped!’ That’s the kind of stuff we’d have yelled at us. Even from our fans, once they get drunk, they yell things, and you’re like, ‘Really?’ It’s part of the job. It comes with it. You’re supposed to take it.”


The Cowboys and the Titans did not respond to requests for comment. The NFL declined to address cheerleaders’ specific claims. In a statement, a spokesman for the league said: “The NFL and all NFL member clubs support fair employment practices. Employees and associates of the NFL have the right to work in a positive and respectful environment that is free from any and all forms of harassment.”

The Dallas Cowboys taught their cheerleaders and dancers what to say to people who said offensive things or touched them inappropriately. The women were told never to upset the fans.

“We were taught, if someone’s getting handsy on you, how to navigate that,” said the former longtime Cowboys cheerleader. “We were told what to say, like, ‘That’s not very nice,’ To be sweet, not rude. Say, ‘Can I ask you to step over here?’ Use body language to help deter the situation. Never be mean. Never. Always courteous. Because if it’s not for the fans, we wouldn’t be here — that’s how we were supposed to think of this.”

“Now I’m like, no, we shouldn’t be trained on how to handle that situation. We should be trained how to raise our hand and say, ‘Security, get this man away from me!’ I wish I could tell my 20-year-old self that.”

The cheerleaders and dancers in Dallas, as in most NFL stadiums, were required to visit tailgate parties outside and areas that are essentially standing-room-only bars. They visited high-priced luxury suites, and they came to dread certain ones.


“You knew the alcohol was flowing and that they would be handsy,” she said. “Arms around the waist, kisses on the cheek. You knew they would, and you couldn’t say anything.”

If they did object?

“You’d be dismissed from the team.”

Most fans were polite, recalled Lisa Kelly, who spent a season with the Carolina Panthers about a decade ago while working full time as a paralegal. But moving through rowdy crowds, she said, usually meant trouble.

“Some of the fans’ behavior was stunning, even for me,” she said, crediting the Panthers with keeping security nearby. “What shocked me was that people said things even with the presence of security.”

Women who say they have been harassed by fans said that there is inherent pressure to keep quiet.

“We beat out hundreds of other girls for this position,” the former cheerleader for the Cowboys said. “It was very apparent, always there — there is always somebody else who can do this job. We never talked about these things, never questioned them.”

Cheerleaders are sent to hospitals, birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, office parties and supermarkets to help promote their teams. Often, they are sent without security.

A former cheerleader for the Washington Redskins recalled one especially unusual assignment.

Several years ago, she said, she and five teammates were told to drive to an address the Redskins had given them. To their surprise, it was not a business — it was a house. Inside, there was no party, no charity event, or even a large gathering of people. There were seven men in their 40s who quickly sized up the cheerleaders.

“OK, who’s single and who’s married?” said the homeowner, according to the former cheerleader.

The men were drinking and asked the women to join in, but they declined. Then the women did a two-minute dance for the men in the basement and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the house or having awkward conversations with the men while they were watching an NFL game on TV.

The way this cheerleader saw it, it was unfair that the team was making money off of its cheerleaders who were paid so little. Someone just had to call the team and the managers would ask, “How many girls do you want for how many hours?” and “Do you want the girls to dance, or not?”

“It’s literally like you’re calling for an escort,” the cheerleader said, recalling that she was paid $100 for a promotional event, while the team would charge $1,200 per cheerleader.

In an email statement, a spokesman for the Redskins said: “The safety and security of all of our employees, including our cheerleaders, is now and has always been a top priority for our organization.

“We are unaware of any reports of any promotional appearances that made Redskins cheerleaders uncomfortable. We take such reports very seriously and will continue to take all steps necessary to ensure the safety and security of our cheerleaders.”

Lacy Thibodeaux, who cheered for the Oakland Raiders from 2013 to ’14, said the cheerleaders were taught to hold their pompoms in a way that would block fans from touching their bare waists or if fans’ hands “got too close to our butts” during photos. The cheerleaders were empowered to walk away from a situation in which they felt that fans were going too far.

“If someone got too handsy, we could just turn around and leave,” she said. “But we still had to be gracious and say, ‘Thank you very much.’”