NFL cheerleaders have spent years fighting for justice. Why don’t we take them seriously?

F or Mhkeeba Pate, no Super Bowl will ever beat the 2014 game. Her hometown team, the Seattle Seahawks, fought from underdog status to domination over the Denver Broncos, knocking them out 43-8. And Pate had the best seats in the house – she was on the field the entire time. Pate, who was a Seattle “Sea Gal” cheerleader for five seasons from 2011–2017, remembers seeing the likes of Gayle King taking her seat near the sideline, and dancing for and with fans.

“It was just amazing. Getting to dance in the end zone. It’s the ultimate experience. That’s our Super Bowl, too,” says Pate.

But 2014 also marks a low point in the cheer world, the beginning of an unraveling that the industry is still working through today. Less than two weeks before Pate performed at the Super Bowl, the former Oakland Raiders cheerleader Lacy Thibodeaux-Fields filed the first class-action lawsuit against the NFL regarding cheerleaders’ compensation, alleging wage theft and gender discrimination. She alleged she was paid only for the hours she was performing – not the thrice-weekly rehearsals or her work as an ambassador for the Raiders at events. At the end of the 2013-2014 season, she was paid a lump sum of $1,250. For comparison, an NFL mascot could earn up to $65,000 in a year.

More lawsuits followed, including one from a former “Buffalo Jill” cheerleader who claimed she pocketed just $105 for an entire season after paying over $600 for her uniform. By the fall of 2020, 10 of the NFL’s 26 teams had been slapped with wage theft, harassment, unsafe working conditions or discrimination suits.

For the most part, these lawsuits flew under the radar, and the show went on.

The NFL’s “pom”-style cheerleading can feel like a holdout from a different