MAGA's NFL Cheerleader Outrage Backfires

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8 hours ago

Welcome to 2025, where absolutely everything is a problem (at least to someone).
This time, it's the new additions to the Minnesota Vikings' cheer squad that have people throwing a hissy fit. And who could be upset about this, you ask? I'll let you take a guess...
If you guessed people with things like "MAGA" and "SAVE AMERICA NOW" in their X bios, you'd be correct. Let me explain: This year, the Minnesota Vikings NFL team added two male cheerleaders to its squad. Their names are Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn.
Some conservatives have chosen Blaize and Louie as examples of "woke"-ness gone too far and lumped them in with their vitriol for transgender women participating in women's sports. This user called it "men overtaking women's arenas" and said that their cheerleading spots "could have and SHOULD have, gone to a woman."
She also wrote, "I'm so done with this state JFC" with Blaize's team headshot.
Someone tweeted a video starring Louie with the squad and wrote, "As if you needed another reason to avoid the NFL and Minnesota."
Even Kevin Sorbo, a Minnesotan actor who calls himself the "first cancel culture victim" in Hollywood, weighed in. "I've been a Vikings fan all my life... sigh. I need a new team now," he posted, along with a video of Blaize in the team dressing room.
Blaize, Louie, and the Vikings seem to be the focus of the current conservative hate train, but Complex Sports tweeted that a total of 12 NFL teams will include male cheerleaders on their squads this season.
Back in 2018, Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies became the first male cheerleaders in NFL history. Male cheerleaders are far from a new thing, though, as several people pointed out. In fact, cheerleading used to be an all-male sport. Here's a photo of a male cheer squad whooping a Maryland team in 1937:
There are even some familiar faces who served as cheerleaders before ascending to the highest office in the country. Here's George W. Bush as a high school cheer captain:
And here's Ronald Reagan as a college cheerleader:
This person wrote that it's just a little hypocritical to be outraged by male cheerleaders while voting for men who were cheerleaders.
People who weren't bothered by the male cheerleaders took to the replies to probe those who were. "You're going to avoid the NFL because of a cheerleader?" this person asked.
One user tweeted, "the camera is not even on them enough to be upset, yall just insecure if you're mad about this."
"I'm a Seahawks fan and all I give a fuck about is making the playoffs," one football fan wrote. "Real fans don't care about this / Only conservative weirdos."
And lastly, this account wrote that "Y'all just need something to be mad about." Truer words were never spoken.
Anyway, Blaize and Louie have had what seems to be a pretty stellar attitude about all of this. Here's what they posted on Instagram following the online hate:
Never let 'em dull your sparkle. ✨ What do you think? Discuss in the comments.