American professional cheerleaders’ low wages provoked widespread outrage over the last few days following the release of Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Viewers were stunned to learn that many National Football League (NFL) dancers worked a second full-time job to sustain the exhausting, injury-prone, and, at times, dangerously exposing discipline.

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has sparked heated debate around women’s exploitation since its release last Thursday (June 20) on the streaming giant.

The seven-episode-long docuseries, directed and executive produced by the prolific Netflix sports documentarian Greg Whiteley, follows the 2023-2024 Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (DCC) squad from start to finish — kicking off at auditions and training camp and continuing through the NFL season.

The NFL cheerleaders, who are all professionally trained dancers, are filmed undergoing stressful auditions, rigorous training, body scrutiny during uniform fittings, and makeovers, in addition to cheering for the three-hours-long Dallas Cowboys American football home games and representing the brand and various other public appearances. 

Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has sparked heated debate around women’s exploitation

Image credits: Netflix

Despite spending up to 40 hours a week working for the football team, many dancers have to work a second full-time job, as shown in the docuseries.

For instance, an episode reveals that the DCC’s first group leader, Kelcey Wetterberg, is a pediatric registered nurse who miraculously balances her life caring for young and sick children with her athletic cheer life. 

“You learn to expedite your meals when you’re busy like me 18 hours a day,” Kelcey explains on the series as she shows her prepared meals for the week. 

“DCC is more of a part-time job — as a nurse, I work 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., then go to practice and get home at midnight, sometimes 1:00 a.m.,” the 27-year-old explained. “A lot of us work full-time jobs and come to DCC at night, so it can be really exhausting …but there are moments here that are so special. I’ll cherish them for the rest of my life, but it’s worth it.”

Image credits: Netflix

The show further displays Anisha Kurukulasuriya, who blows the judges away with her Bollywood-inspired dance while trying out for the DCC. 

Viewers were left in awe upon learning that Anisha works full-time as an orthodontist yet somehow still finds the time to endure the grueling audition process, only to be cut late in the competition.

In one episode, Katherine Puryear, a 2022 DCC alum, reveals that during her time dancing for the $9.2 billion-worth NFL team, she was making as much as a full-time fast food employee.

“I would say I’m making, like, [as much as] a Chick-fil-A worker that works full time,” Katherine, who now works as a real estate agent in Dallas, Texas, says in the series.

The seven-episode-long docuseries follows the 2023-2024 Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (DCC) squad from start to finish

Image credits: Netflix

As per Indeed, the average Chick-fil-A Corporate hourly pay ranges from approximately $10.56 per hour for a Customer Service Associate/Cashier to $26.38 per hour for a Night Supervisor. 

That’s approximately $38,418 per year and $3,201.47 per month in a city where the estimated monthly cost of living without rent for a single person is 1,200.6$, according to Numbeo. 

Moreover, Dallas rentals average $1,980 for a studio rental to $4,450 for a four-bedroom rental, Renthop notes.

Nevertheless, the hardworking athletes may appear to earn even less, as 2023 DCC alumni Marissa Garrison commented in a TikTok video: “Former DCC here. I retired in 2023.”

Image credits: Netflix

“We made $400/game, $12/hour for practices, $250 per show group appearance, and $100+ per appearance depending on tenure.”

She further admitted that yearly income varied depending on the number of games, appearances, and group performances she was chosen to do.

“I would say I made about $15,000-$20,000 a year,” Marissa wrote.

Charlotte Jones, the executive vice president of the Dallas Cowboys and chief brand officer, explains in America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: “There’s a lot of cynicism around pay for NFL cheerleaders—as it should be.”

Viewers were stunned to learn that many National Football League (NFL) dancers worked a second full-time job

Image credits: dccheerleaders

“They’re not paid a lot. But the facts are, they actually don’t come here for the money. 

“They come here for something that’s actually bigger than that to them.”

Charlotte, the daughter of no less than billionaire Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, continues: “It is about being a part of something bigger than themselves. 

“It is about a sisterhood that they are able to form, about relationships that they have for the rest of their life.”

Image credits: dccheerleaders

“They have a chance to feel like they are valued, they are special, and they are making a difference. 

“When the women come here, they find their passion and they find their purpose.”

However, the docuseries proves that cheerleading for an emblematic NFL team isn’t all glitz and glam.

In one episode, five-year veteran Kelcey tearfully recounts the time a stalker put an AirTag on her car so that he could track her movements.

“DCC is more of a part-time job — as a nurse, I work 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,” a cheerleader says in the docuseries

Later, a photographer allegedly groped 21-year-old Sophia Laufer while she was on the field during a Dallas Cowboys game. 

Willing to press charges against the man, the series reveals that police couldn’t pursue the accusations, with Sophia’s traumatic testimony being insufficient proof.

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has continuously drawn an avalanche of negative reactions, as a person wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): “If I’m a DCC and I find out y’all bragging about how yall can afford a million tv’s & hand-churned ice cream while simultaneously paying my $35 a game I’m burning all this sh*t down.”

An X user commented: “Charlotte Jones acknowledging and validating  #AmericasSweethearts low pay because it’s a ‘dream’ to even make the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders team is so gross.”

“Yall should be lifting women up. Not perpetuating the cycle.”

A viewer questioned: “Let me get this straight, the women are physically injuring themselves to the point of needing multiple surgeries and they still aren’t being paid fairly?!!!”

The DCC’s pre-game signature AC/DC Thunderstruck involves an impressive jump where all the dancers land directly in a split on the ground.

“I would say I’m making, like, [as much as] a Chick-fil-A worker that works full time,” a DCC alumni says on the show

“Yet it’s apparent throughout the series that DCC’s perfection is a product of the obsessive perfectionism imposed upon the women by [DCC director and alum Kelli Finglass], choreographer Judy Trammell, and their colleagues,” a Time review states.

The docuseries exposes the long-term effect performing the iconic jump split has on the body, in addition to the demanding routines, with different alumni admitting to having hip pain and other physical conditions.

“Our job, literally, is to make people happy,” retired DCC Caroline Sundvold says to Netflix. “No matter what we feel like.”

“I would say I made about $15,000-$20,000 a year,” an ex-DCC revealed on social media

An observer penned on X: “The fact that the girls get paid so poor, that they have to do secondary jobs when they are so crucial to the Cowboys brand is SO gross.” 

The most highly paid NFL players make upwards of $50 million a year, Time reported. Meanwhile, the average NFL water boy makes $53,000 per year, and NFL mascots make $25,000 per season, according to NBC Sports Boston.

Bored Panda has contacted DCC and Dallas Cowboys representatives for comment.

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