There are 71 male cheerleaders in the NFL and men have been on cheer teams in the league since 2018. Yet the Minnesota Vikings having their first two men caused a freakout among some people in August. Now, the two guys make their NFL debut this week.
Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn will be on the sidelines Sunday night when the Vikings host the Atlanta Falcons in a nationally televised game on NBC (in the NFL, cheerleaders only perform at home games.) If the cameras zoom in on them, viewers will see two men happy to be doing what they love.
“I’m right where I was meant to be💜💛,” Conn posted on Instagram after his debut during the preseason. “I’ve never felt so loved. Thank you, everyone for the most amazing words and support.”
“Wait… did someone say our name?” Shiek and Conn cheekily posted on Instagram with a photo of themselves at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis for the Vikings’ second preseason game, a week after their story went viral when a right-wing podcaster with front-row tickets had a fainting spell over seeing two dudes dance.
Related
Shiek and Conn have received an outpouring of support from fans and they and the team are taking the “controversy” in stride. I put quotes around controversy because the whole hubbub made little sense. There are so many male cheerleaders in the NFL that they had ceased being much of a story. Randolph Rivera of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for example, is gay and married and in his ninth season, but until my story earlier this month, nothing had been written about him.
I think several factors played into Conn and Shiek becoming online fodder. Both men dance in a way that screams “gay” to those offended by their presence, even though neither has discussed his orientation. The podcast host who was shocked to see “some man gyrating right in front” of him has almost 400,000 X followers and his post got 2.8 million views. This, combined with the cultural shift against inclusion hyperfueled after the election, along with the desire for social media engagement, put more of a spotlight on things like male cheerleaders, despite it being a nonissue for years.
Neither man seems the least bothered by any negativity and are ready for their debut. Both are fairly active on social media and Shiek is starting to carve out a niche for himself as an influencer and is not shy about showing some skin.
Any controversy over the two male cheerleaders has long passed, fading out like most once-hot social media stories quickly do. Shiek and Conn will cheer, dance and do their thing love in front of the home crowd on Sunday and all fans will care about is whether the Vikings win or lose.
Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.