For a sport that has always been dominated by girls and women, a new wave has come and changed the cheerleading game with two young men joining the sideline and halftime squad for the Minnesota Vikings, the well-known and beloved Minnesota football team. With their 2025 season starting, the Vikings have introduced Louie Conn and Blaize Shiek to the previously all-women’s cheerleading team.
Our first dancer, Louie Conn, is a 22-year-old from Iowa State University. Who was one of the first male dancers to dance for ISU’s Big 12 football team, the Cyclones. Our second dancer, Blaize Shiek, attended North Dakota State University and was part of the North Dakota State University dance team. Before college, Shiek was a part of the Fargo South Bruinkix dance team at his high school in North Dakota during his teenage years. Uniquely, both dancers shared a similar experience as they were both the first males on their respective dance teams before finally joining the Minnesota Vikings.
Conn and Shiek collaborated on an Instagram post on August 16, posing with each other with pom-poms and Minnesota Vikings attire with the caption “wait…did someone say our name?” announcing they are now members of the NFL team’s cheerleading squad. They also appeared in a video on TikTok with other members of the squad with the caption “New men on the Minnesota Vikings,” which received much love and support from cheerleading and football fans alike.
“I didn’t even know about Vikings having male cheerleaders, but I think it’s cool to see that people can now do things they enjoy,” Columbia Heights High School (CHHS) football player Elvis Placencia (12) said.
Unfortunately, with their announcement, Conn and Shiek also received a huge amount of backlash all over social media. A lot of negative comments centered around how there was no need for or want of male cheerleaders, along with many other offensive remarks. Some spouted beliefs that cheerleading is a “women’s only” sport or expressed shock at the fact that the Vikings could’ve just started a new trend.
However, Minnesota isn’t even the first team in the NFL to have male cheerleaders. Back in 2018, the Los Angeles Rams introduced the league’s first male cheerleaders, Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies, for the first time in history. Peron and Jinnies both also had the opportunity to perform during Super Bowl LIII in 2019. As of now, the Los Angeles Rams have seven male cheerleaders for the 2025 season. Along with the Rams, the New Orleans Saints also introduced their male cheerleaders in 2018 and currently have 12 male cheerleaders for their 2025 season. And yet, somehow, even knowing that male cheerleaders are not anything new to the NFL or dance in general, some people still have a huge issue with it.
“I’ve been a Vikings fan my entire life, and I didn’t realize that they didn’t already have men as cheerleaders,” CHHS band teacher Ms. Caitlin DiSalvi said. “Then [I saw on] social media [that] some people had kind of [a] strong reaction [towards it, but] I honestly never saw what the big deal was.”
Former Vikings player and conservative activist Jack Brewer was just one public figure to respond to the news negatively, saying he’s “disgusted and embarrassed” and “no man ever needs to have pom-poms in their hands.” Brewer even stated that he “just lost all [his] respect for the Vikings.” Brewer’s followers and other right-leaning Vikings fans have backed the idea to boycott the Vikings this season over their new cheerleaders. Through all the backlash, however, there were also many positive comments across social media, like “Oh, I am definitely going to one of the Viking games now” and “Y’all are incredible and I’m so excited to see you on the field!” Clearly, the divide between fans supporting this new change or not exists despite happening seven years after other teams already set the precedent.
Times are changing with generation after generation becoming more expressive and unapologetic about themselves and not sticking with the norms formed several years ago, and this is sure to continue — even in the face of traditionalists, sexists and toxic masculinity. With Conn and Shiek out on the field at U.S. Bank, this could show and inspire many other boys and girls to pursue their interests despite archaic gender roles, and it could possibly even help a lot of children and young people find their passion.
Kids shouldn’t be afraid of showing their true selves just because others don’t want them to! We as a society should normalize male cheerleaders more because it isn’t something new and will continue to happen—and because self-expression is, actually, an American ideal. This could be one of the steps on our way to a new normal as sports fans.
