But recent reports of harassment, lack of compensation, and gender discrimination has shined a light on the treatment of cheerleaders in the NFL...
Source: The New York Times, USA Today, and The Guardian
And each NFL team gets to decide how much its cheerleaders are paid and what kind of guidelines and rules they must follow.
In 2014, the Oakland Raiders paid a $1.25 million dollar settlement to former cheerleaders after a class action lawsuit alleging wage theft.
Source: CBS Sports
Cheerleaders with the Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the New York Jets have also brought wage lawsuits against their teams.
Source: The New York Times
Some Cheerleaders in the NFL reportedly make between $75 and $150 a game and $50 an hour for special appearances, but the pay is not standardized across the industry.
Source: Time
Sharon Vinick, an attorney who worked on the 2014 class action lawsuit against the Raiders, said women felt intimidated to speak up for themselves.
"The women are told that they're really, really fortunate to be dancing, and if they don't want to dance, they don't have to," Vinick told Business Insider.
"But compare that to the guys who are the quarterbacks. I mean, they're very lucky to be quarterbacks, but they're still paid millions of dollars," she said.
Twin sisters Dresdynn and Schuyler Warnell, who both cheered for the Houston Texans from 2010 to 2014, said they were paid about $200 a game, plus compensation for travel expenses, practices, and appearances.
But their pay is more than the $1,250 Oakland Raider cheerleaders, known as Raiderettes, made a season.
For comparison, Vinick said reports suggest that mascots make an estimated $40,000 to $60,000 per season, plus benefits.
And the least-played NFL team member, or a "benchwarmer" who doesn't play in games, gets paid $100,000.
It's definitely not a salary you can live off of, said Jennifer Omohundro who cheered for the Tennessee Titans before joining the Atlanta Falcons in the early 2000s.
She said what she made was "definitely minimal," but despite the low pay, cheering was "a wonderful experience" for her.
The same goes for Rachel Swartz, who cheered for the Philadelphia Eagles for the 2015 and 2016 seasons and found the experience to be "empowering."
"It is really unfortunate to hear a lot of the other stories about women who have not had the same positive experience I had," Swartz said.
So strict, in fact, that a former New Orleans Saints cheerleader was fired over an Instagram photo of her wearing a one-piece outfit.
Source: Business Insider
She's now suing for discrimination, claiming that the male football players in the NFL aren't held to the same standards that the female cheerleaders are.
Source: Business Insider
Swartz said she and her fellow Eagles cheerleaders did not have Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook accounts. "We weren't allowed to have any of those, and that was mainly for our protection," she said.
While the no social media rule is common, some teams, like the Denver Broncos, allow their cheerleaders to post from social media accounts officially affiliated with the team.
One of the most common rules for NFL cheerleaders is that interaction with players is strictly prohibited, and violation of this rule can result in immediate termination.
"Even though they run past us on the field, sometimes that would be the only time we were really around them," Omohundro said. "I mean, they're professionals, they're doing their thing as athletes, and we were doing ours."
"They would even go as far as saying if, say, you're at a restaurant and a couple of the players come in, we would have to leave because they don't even want us in the same room," Dresdynn Warnell said.
Source: The New York Times
Some NFL cheerleaders said they were held to strict weight standards as well. Some said they were made to jump to see if their flesh jiggled or suspended if they were ever more than three pounds outside of their ideal weight.
Source: The Guardian and Business Insider
One former Houston Texans cheerleader sued the team after she said her coach called her "skinny fat" and duct taped parts of her skin during games to make her body appear firmer.
Rosa is involved in two lawsuits that also include claims that Houston Texans cheerleaders were not being paid minimum wage or overtime. Gary has since resigned.
Source: Fox 4 News and BBC