Glenn Welt was the first male to try out as an NFL cheerleader, doing so on May 20, 1978. The Miami Dolphins would not let him compete when he arrived at the
Orange Bowl in Miami. The incident later became a nationwide news story, led to a federal anti-discrimination case, and was
spoofed on a November 1979 episode of
Mork & Mindy. The episode caused plans for a CBS made-for-TV movie starring
Robin Williams as Welt to be scrapped, while also misrepresenting Welt and male cheerleaders in general when Williams pranced onto a football field dressed in a female outfit. Male NFL cheerleaders as dancers for the past few decades have been rare due to social norms and marketability. However, in 1998 the
Baltimore Ravens Cheerleaders were the first squad to start using male
stuntmen. Following trends in dance with popular summer dance series such as
Strictly Come Dancing franchise,
So You Think You Can Dance, and
World of Dance, where competitions are co-ed, in 2009, the first male dancers were added to the
National Football League by the
Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys introduced the Rhythm & Blue Dancers, founded by Charlotte Jones and directed by Jenny Durbin Smith, becoming the first co-ed dance team in NFL history. They perform at every home game on stage, at halftime and on the sidelines, with their dynamic hip-hop dancing, stunting, freestyle, and tumbling. They are also responsible for the first NFL drum corp and in 2017 created a 7–16 year old co-ed hip-hop dance team called the Dallas Cowboys Rookie Squad. In 2018, the
Los Angeles Rams and
New Orleans Saints adopted male dancers to their dance teams as well. In 2019, the
Seattle Seahawks,
New England Patriots,
Tennessee Titans,
Indianapolis Colts,
Tampa Bay Buccaneers and
Philadelphia Eagles added males to their squads, and the Seahawks cheerleaders became the second permanent co-ed squad after the Ravens. In 2021, for the first time, the
Panthers TopCats had multiple (three) men make the final team with the
Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleaders also adding a man to their team. Most of the squads' male cheerleaders are involved in stunts. In March 2022,
Justine Lindsay, a
transgender woman, made the
Carolina Topcats, becoming the first openly transgender person to cheer in the NFL. In August 2025, during the 2025
preseason, the Vikings introduced two male cheerleaders, which led to national backlash on social media. The Vikings defended the two in an official statement, saying "[M]ale cheerleaders have been a part of previous Vikings teams and have long been associated with collegiate and professional cheerleading." ==Cheerleader competitions==