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Watch: Fate of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders After

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“It just means more.” Sure, the SEC has coined

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These Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Secrets Will Leave You Thunderstruck

Watch: Fate of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders After Season 3 Revealed

How ’bout them Cowboys cheerleaders?

While Dallas’ NFL squad may be off to a less-than-inspiring record three weeks after the 2026-2027 season kicked off, their star-spangled counterparts continue to leave crowds thunderstruck.

And though their salaries still pale in comparison to the $240 million four-year contract quarterback Dak Prescott inked in 2024, the income-earning potential for each member of the 36-person squad is nearly as high as their famed kicks.

In addition to the 400 percent pay bump announced in June 2025, “The girls are now becoming influencers, which I have fought in the past,” longtime choreographer Judy Trammell shared during a season three episode of the Netflix docuseries America’s Sweethearts. “But they’re becoming so successful with it, so they’re not having to kill themselves with a 9-to-5 job.”

And that remains true even after they hang up their vests.

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Though three-year vet Reece Weaver had long since nipped her side hustle as a florist in the bud when she announced her retirement earlier this year, her current role starring as Chicago‘s Roxie Hart proves that when you’re good to the fans, life is good to you.

And she’s not the only alum enjoying her time in the spotlight and all that jazz.

Since retiring after the 2024 season, “Life’s been good,” Jada McLean who helped lead the charge for the team’s massive pay bump, revealed on the Netflix series. “I cannot complain. Now I’m just doing social media full-time, mainly brand deals.”

As for what she pockets promoting products from the likes of Bumble, Dove, Maybelline and Caraway, “It all varies,” she added. “But it can go anywhere from, like, $5,000 for me right now to, like, $50,000.”

So, yes, they’ve certainly upped their game since their days Making the Team on CMT.

But while much has changed since the 16-season series premiered on Sept. 29, 2006, a lot of the choreography is the same. Glam is still tightly controlled, jump splits continue to be superhuman and the squad remains close AF.

Here’s how they stay fully in sync.

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Jump Splits Look Painful Because They AreThe Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders‘ signature jump splits take their toll, according to alum Caroline Sundvold, who appeared in the first season of the Netflix docuseries American Sweethearts with her younger sister and then-DCC rookie Anna Kate Sundvold in 2024. A doctor told Caroline she needed surgery following four seasons of jump-splitting her joints into a permanently injured state, as she shared on the show, “but a hip surgery like that is a good three to six months recovery. I was like, ‘I really want to do one more year of cheerleading.’ I just wanted to push through.”

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She finally had the operation after her fifth season, Caroline noting that the sacrifice was totally worth it. But the foot surgery she underwent next was surprisingly more traumatic.”You would think hip surgery would be a little worse,” Caroline said. “But the foot has so many nerves in it. So from the [end-of-season] banquet until now I’ve just been recovering a lot, which has been a bit of a wake-up call.”

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None of which deterred Anna, who after making the 2023 squad was back on the roster for 2024.

Madeline Salter/Instagram

Ouch, but OKAmerica’s Sweetheart standout Madeline Salter, who was back cheering for the Cowboys’ 2024 NFL season, has documented more treatment sessions on her Instagram than most, including visits to Kinetic Centre, a spine and sports rehab clinic, to vanquish tension headaches and get her feet taped.Her chiropractic sports practitioner Dr. Kristina Myles noted in a post showing Salter getting worked on, “our focus is primarily correcting facial layers that can cause pain, stiffness, or loss of range of motion when injured or overworked.”

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Go Ahead, Quit Your Week-Day JobThe Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are always ready for some football, but the gig of a lifetime was not always the main event as far as income goes.ESPN reported in 2017 that NFL cheerleaders made roughly $75 to $150 per game, an eye-opening moment for fans who assumed those performers were making bank. Or at least a living wage.As seen in the first season of America’s Sweethearts, DCC alum Kelcey Wetterberg is a pediatric registered nurse, while Reece Weaver, who announced her retirement in 2026, worked at a Dallas florist.As DCC alum Kat Puryear said on the Netflix show, “I would say I’m making, like, Chick-fil-A worker that works full-time” money.According to the Dallas Morning News, cheerleader pay has since risen to closer to $400 per game, plus hourly wages for all the time spent preparing for games and making appearances.Still, the place the dancers are most likely to cash in is on social media. “The girls are now becoming influencers, which I have fought in the past,” longtime choreographer Judy Trammell acknowledged on the third season of America’s Sweethearts. “But they’re becoming so successful with it, so they’re not having to kill themselves with a 9-to-5 job.”

Megan McElany/Instagram

Calendar GirlMegan McElaney gave a 2024 video-montage glimpse of her typical day as “an NFL cheerleader with three jobs,” starting with her 6:15 a.m. wakeup call.In addition to her full-time job as a marketing/recruiting coordinator at Bluecrest Financial Alliances, per LinkedIn, she had added makeup artist for The Styling Stewardess to her resume—and when all that work is done, it’s off to AT&T Stadium for evening practice, which ends at 11 p.m.As Salter put it to E! News, “DCC has taught a lot of us about time management. We’ve got to make sure that we have time for not only our jobs and DCC, but also ourselves.”

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Body PoliticMaintaining peak fitness is part of the gig, but custom uniforms tailored for each cheerleader’s shape have helped the organization move past a more body-image-obsessed era.”Trying to make that uniform fit and and have the most beautiful lines, we don’t talk about weight,” DCC director since 1991 Kelli Finglass told E! News. “The girls are all very good with their own nutrition, their own personal workouts. We have a gym adjacent to our dance studio,” plus nutritionists and mental health experts available for consultation.The women are free to focus on their own personal regimens, “and we try to provide resources and educate them,” Finglass said. “We leave it at that. And I think we’re better for that.”The DCC audition FAQ section on their website advises, “You should look well-proportioned in dancewear. We DO NOT have specific height and weight requirements.”

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As the World TurnsWhile the institution has certainly evolved over the years (the star-spangled uniforms didn’t even make their debut until 1972), the DCC organization isn’t all that different from when it began.”I think everything around the cheerleaders has changed,” Finglass told the New York Times. “And they’re adapting to many things like social media and visibility. But at the core, they are world-class dancers, and a big part of what they do requires a servant’s heart. That has been the case throughout our entire history.”

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Ps & QsAnother resource at the ready: An etiquette coach.”They go to dinners with high-ranking military officials,” Finglass explained to the Times, “so they are put in situations that they may not have been exposed to yet as an 18- or 19-year-old from a small town.” And since people get so excited to see the DCC all around the world, she continued, “I love them learning all the different facets and being polished and poised and prepared. All I’m trying to do is give them every tool possible, so they can be confident.”

Sophy Laufer/TikTok

The Glam Squad? You’re Looking at ThemWhile they’re free to seek out assistance, and they have dedicated makeup artists for photo shoots, the ladies are responsible for doing their own hair and makeup before games. (Sophy Laufer has done a full tutorial on how she gets her glamorous game day glow on TikTok.)Among the aesthetic rules: No red lips and no red nails. Plus, hair must always be worn down, and Dallas’ Tangerine Salon has been keeping the ladies’ locks bouncy for years.

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Sheer Energy LegsYou can have the most perfectly shaped, smoothest, most blemish-free legs of all time—they’re still getting encased in nude hosiery if you’re a DCC.Also, if you have a tattoo, that’s fine—but it has to be completely masked with makeup and bronzer for games.

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Bronze MedalSpray tans are grand, but, per the DCC site, they “should be warm without orange tones and with face and body color being similar. Facial features are ‘lost’ when a spray tan is too dark.”

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They Don’t Just CheerThe DCC are also pillars of their community, which Trammell was happy to see reflected in America’s Sweethearts.She lamented that their longrunning CMT reality show Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, which ended in 2022 after 16 seasons, “didn’t show the things we do the rest of the year,” Trammell told Entertainment Tonight. “The USO tours, the veterans hospital, the children’s hospital visits. We do so much more than has ever been seen.”

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Post-Cheer Support SystemThere’s actually a squad to join after you leave the team, Finglass told E! News, “a very active and engaging alumni association that’s called The Spirit of DCC.”Because not all that unlike getting out of the military, when someone retires from cheerleading it’s admittedly “a big lifestyle change to go from seeing your teammates every night at rehearsals to not,” the DCC director explained. “That’s why we try to supplement that immediately with alumni activities. Because it is sad for all of us.”Noting that the ladies go on to share major milestones—such as weddings, and then their kids‘ weddings—for years after their cheering days are done, Finglass added, “I feel like a school teacher, and when your students graduate, you’re always excited for the new freshman class. But of course you have emotions, and you have relationships that you know are not going to be seen or felt on a daily basis.”

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