NFL Team Causes Controversy With Two Male Cheerleaders

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Some Minnesota Vikings fans are upset and threatening to cancel their season tickets because two men have made the cheerleading squad.

While the football players are trying to take home victories on the field, fans have always had the cheerleaders to break up the game a little. Usually, those cheerleaders are women and, for much of the NFL, that holds true. For the 2025 Minnesota Vikings, it isn’t as two men have made their main cheer squad — Blaize Shiek and Louis Conn.

Now men on the sidelines aren’t new to the NFL as they are usually part of a support team. Sheik and Conn, however, are actually part of the cheerleaders. Some NFL teams have aimed to promote gender equality through their cheerleaders, and several other teams that have male cheerleaders include Baltimore, New Orleans, Seattle, Tennessee, Los Angeles, New England, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Kansas City.

Carolina had the first openly trans cheerleader, Justine Lindsey, in the NFL.

Still, some Viking fans are now threatening to cancel their season tickets.

Several fans have announced on X that they are “done with the woke bullsh*t” and others saying that “they are done with this state (Minnesota)."

Male cheerleaders aren’t anything new as both high schools and colleges have males on the cheer teams.

At the end of the day, this isn’t going to affect the product on the field.