NFL Tries Male Cheerleaders. That’s the Left’s Plan to Win Back Men? | The American Spectator

In an age where every individual curates their own media diet, the collapse of the monoculture has led to more than just fractured tastes; it has made broad cultural adoption nearly impossible. No longer are Americans collectively tuned into the same primetime sitcoms, watching the same cable news shows, or even encountering the same commercials. And this diffusion of attention means experiments in reshaping cultural norms often fail not because of a coordinated backlash, but because of the algorithmic echo chambers they inadvertently land in.

The recent attempt of an NFL team to introduce male cheerleaders is the latest example of a media-era experiment caught in the wrong feedback loop — one where outrage, not support, dominated the reception. The Minnesota Vikings prominently featured male cheerleaders Louie and Blazie on their social media and official website, making the men a staple of their 2025-2026 session squad. Pompoms in hand, video emphasizes these dudes as “the next generation of cheer” while using their team’s women as background characters.

The result? A viral controversy, not a cultural moment. Instead of being celebrated across the mainstream or evaluated with serious consideration, the move was sucked into a vortex of mockery and frustration, much like Bud Light’s attempt at normalizing transgenderism through its 2022 Dylan Mulvaney ad. Right-leaning media outlets like The Gateway Pundit and the New York Post picked up the story quickly, framing it as yet another example of men encroaching on traditionally female spaces.

And as often happens in today’s algorithmic climate, the story drew the most attention from people predisposed to dislike it. The outrage comments — “more dudes in women’s spaces” or “what happened to football?” — weren’t just loud, they were relentless. And social media, desperate for engagement, kept feeding the content back to the same irritated audience.

Twelve NFL teams are reportedly incorporating male cheerleaders this season — the Minnesota Vikings, the Baltimore Ravens, the Los Angeles Rams, the New Orleans Saints, the Philadelphia Eagles, the San Francisco 49ers, the New England Patriots, the Tennessee Titans, the Indianapolis Colts, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Carolina Panthers. More than 30 percent of the league will feature cheer teams in which men take a spot away from women, The Spun reported Tuesday. This fact suggests this isn’t a one-off or a publicity stunt. It’s coordinated. And it forces a more serious question: is this really the cultural front the left wants to fight on — especially after losing male voters by double digits?

Perhaps they want to send the message that men, like Barbie, can be who they want to be — whether that be a tough football player on the field or a cheerleader just beyond NFL bleachers. But if the goal is to create a culture in which they can win back men, this doesn’t only register as tone-deaf — it feels like outright trolling.

The confusion isn’t about “tolerance.” Most people aren’t up in arms because they can’t stand the sight of a man doing high kicks. It’s more basic than that. Given that cheerleading squads were introduced to capture and hold the attention of the mostly male fan base, it’s the creeping feeling that the male attraction to female beauty is being impugned, that the rules are being rewritten in real time, and no one asked if we were okay with it.

The male cheerleaders aren’t just professional pompom holders and pyramid stackers; they’re symbols in a broader struggle over who gets to define normal. And much like the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sports — a debate that clearly hurt Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign — the push feels artificially escalated. People didn’t ask for this, yet they’re expected to embrace it or stay silent.

The NFL is one of the last truly national cultural institutions. It has the power to make things stick — not through force, but through familiarity. If something shows up enough Sundays in a row, people start to accept it. But even the NFL isn’t immune to backlash, especially when it seems more interested in chasing elite approval than reflecting its own audience. And when “progress” comes at the expense of what fans recognize and connect with, the result isn’t growth — it’s erosion.

To be clear, this isn’t the end of the world. Men have long been part of college cheerleading squads. And it doesn’t seem at this point that male NFL cheerleaders will be pretending to be women. Male dancers and cheerleaders can add a distinctively masculine power and style to uniforms and acrobatics.

But it’s a strange hill to plant a flag on. Culture shouldn’t move forward just because a marketing team or political strategists say it should. Especially when those efforts feel less like inclusion and more like provocation. It’s not that people can’t adapt to change; it’s that they know when it’s being forced.

Ultimately, this moment isn’t about cheerleaders. It’s about holding on to the last vestiges of collective entertainment. Americans must trust that something as simple as watching football on a Sunday won’t come with a lecture or a re-education campaign dressed up in glitter. Because if it does, they will vote with their remote and turn off the TV. You can only bend the culture so far before it stops cheering with you — and starts booing.

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Julianna Frieman is a writer based in North Carolina. She received her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is pursuing her master’s degree in Communications (Digital Strategy) at the University of Florida. Her work has been published by the Daily Caller, The American Spectator, and The Federalist. Follow her on X at @juliannafrieman.