Sideline dancers used to be anonymous. Then Netflix put cameras inside a locker room, and the best known NFL cheerleaders started posting follower counts that beat most of the players they cheer for. This ranking counts down 25 of them by their live Instagram following, across the Cowboys, Rams, Chargers, Ravens and 49ers. For a wider view of the platform, our roundup of the hottest Instagram models covers more names.
Our list of the hottest NFL cheerleaders 2026 has produced mixes current squad members with alumnae who left the sideline for Hollywood, wrestling and pageants. Some of these NFL cheerleaders are pediatric nurses and finance analysts by day. Two are men who rewrote the job description in 2018. Follow the ones whose feeds you actually want in your grid.
The 25 Hottest NFL Cheerleaders on Instagram in 2026
Sarah Shahi
@sarahshahi · Dallas Cowboys@sarahshahi
Born Aahoo Jahansouzshahi in Euless, Texas, she made the Dallas squad in 1999 with no prior experience by hiding at the back of the audition line and copying the women in front of her. Roughly 500 women tried out that year.
She joined specifically to become an actress, and it worked. Few NFL cheerleaders have used the uniform so deliberately as a stepping stone. She quit after a single season, moved to Los Angeles, and built a career across The L Word, Person of Interest, Sex/Life and The Rookie. Her verdict on the squad, given to Fox News: those cheerleaders make show business look easy by comparison.
Reece Weaver
@reece_christinee · Dallas Cowboys@reece_christinee
No current squad member converted screen time into audience faster. The Alabama Dance Team alumna crossed a million on Instagram and 1.3 million on TikTok after season one, and she now has a limited-edition boohoo collection to go with it.
She met her husband Will Allman at a Bama basketball game and messaged him first, a detail he repeats on camera whenever given the chance. They married in April 2024 with teammates performing “Thunderstruck” at the reception, and she has since left her flower-shop job for full-time creator work. Our list of the best influencer couples on Instagram covers more pairs like them.
Kylie Dickson
@kylie_dickson · Dallas Cowboys@kylie_dickson
An Ole Miss Rebels cheerleader and former gymnastics competitor, Kylie Dickson graduated in 2021 and joined the Dallas squad the following year. She is signed to United Talent Agency, which puts her ahead of most of her teammates commercially.
She performed “Thunderstruck” on a live ATP tennis court at the Dallas Open, and was part of the squad that opened the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight. Her offseason Pilates content shows the flexibility work behind the kick line better than anything the broadcasts capture.
Stacy Keibler
@stacykeibler · Baltimore Ravens@stacykeibler
Baltimore’s most famous sideline export is one of very few NFL cheerleaders to leave for a wrestling ring. She joined the Ravens squad as an 18-year-old, then went to WCW and never really looked back. She started with WCW’s Nitro Girls in 1999, became Miss Hancock, and retired from WWE in 2006.
Dancing with the Stars, How I Met Your Mother and a much-covered relationship with George Clooney followed. She remained a Ravens season ticket holder through all of it. Her Instagram now runs on wellness, travel and family rather than nostalgia, and her bio leads with the Hall of Fame induction.
Teri Hatcher
@officialterihatcher · San Francisco 49ers@officialterihatcher
Long before Lois Lane, Teri Hatcher was a Gold Rush Girl on the San Francisco 49ers sideline. Wikipedia still lists NFL cheerleader among her occupations alongside actress, singer, author and director.
Lois & Clark ran four seasons, Tomorrow Never Dies made her a Bond girl, and Desperate Housewives won her a Golden Globe plus three Screen Actors Guild Awards. She also voiced both Mel Jones and the Beldam in Coraline, the role most people under thirty know her for. Women moving from sport into media is a pattern worth following, and our list of the hottest female golf influencers on Instagram tracks the same crossover.
Kaylyn Slevin
@kaylynslevin · Los Angeles Chargers@kaylynslevin
Chicago-born and Los Angeles-raised, Kaylyn Slevin was acting professionally from age nine and played Beatrice on Chicken Girls before she ever made an NFL sideline. She joined the Chargers squad in 2019 and remains one of the most searched hot NFL cheerleaders on the platform.
Her bio now reads Miss Charm USA 2025, and she works in the auto industry while doing sponsor and fundraising work on the side. She is a FIDM graduate, which shows in a feed that is styled more like a fashion portfolio than a cheer account.
Charisma Carpenter
@charismacarpenter · San Diego Chargers@charismacarpenter
The San Diego Chargers squad of 1991 included a 21-year-old from Las Vegas who would go on to play Cordelia Chase across seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
Charmed, Veronica Mars and The Expendables films followed. She runs the podcast The Bitch is Back on Patreon, founded the convention platform MyCon.Live, and has 164,000 more followers on TikTok. Her Instagram bio lists three words in order: mother, creative, citizen.
Charly Barby
@charly.barby · Dallas Cowboys@charly.barby
Viewers watched her get cut from the 2023-24 squad, then watched her move to Dallas and put everything into training for one more attempt.
What almost ended it was a pulmonary embolism that hit days before tryouts. She made the team anyway, which gave season two its tensest stretch and pushed her past half a million followers on TikTok. She was also one of five members chosen for the Rent the Runway holiday campaign.
Victoria Kalina
@victoriakalina · Dallas Cowboys@victoriakalina
Season one belonged to Victoria Kalina. The daughter of former DCC member Tina Kalina, she carried a family legacy on screen and spoke plainly about body image and mental health in a uniform that leaves nowhere to hide.
A VegasInsider analysis put her engagement rate at 11.32 percent, the highest on the cast, and valued her sponsored posts at around $3,750 each. She retired and moved to New York to chase performing work, then returned in season two for a guest arc. TikTok is now her main platform.
Kleine Powell
@kleinepowell · Dallas Cowboys@kleinepowell
Add her Instagram, TikTok and YouTube together and Kleine Powell is closing on a million followers, with an Instagram engagement rate around 11 percent. Her first name rhymes with Calvin Klein plus an extra syllable, as she explains in her own YouTube bio.
She joined the squad in 2021, works as a graphic designer, and posts YouTube videos every Thursday. Skydiving and scuba diving are listed hobbies for someone whose job requires precision kick lines. She appeared with teammates on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and her training clips sit close to our roundup of the hottest female fitness influencers on Instagram.
Kelly Villares
@kellyvillares · Dallas Cowboys@kellyvillares
Getting cut nine days before the first preseason game is a specific kind of heartbreak, and that is where season one left the girl from Weehawken, New Jersey.
She returned the next year and made it, which earned her a place on the Netflix Summer Break red carpet at Santa Monica Pier beside Jada McLean and Reece Weaver. She also cuts her teammates’ hair, a running joke that turned into an actual side skill on camera.
Ava Lahey
@avamarielahey · Dallas Cowboys@avamarielahey
Cut at the last minute in 2021, Ava Lahey waited three years before auditioning again. Most candidates do not sit through a gap that long.
She has danced since she was two, came through the University of Kentucky dance team, and worked as a social media manager for a beauty school. That job explains a grid noticeably better lit than her teammates’, and she is now represented by The Digital Dept.
Jada McLean
@jadaboo0203 · Dallas Cowboys@jadaboo0203
The most consequential NFL cheerleader of the past decade is arguably Jada McLean, the fifth-year veteran and first group leader who drove the contract talks that ended in a 400 percent raise. “We do a damn good job at being cheerleaders,” she said on camera, “but we’re still fighting to be seen for what we’re worth.”
With teammate Megan McElaney she forced a meeting with the organization’s HR and legal teams that stalled until the postseason, when the raise came through. She danced two years at UC Davis, works as a cosmetics specialist for a dermatology practice, and has a black lab named Shyla. We break the numbers down in our guide to how much NFL cheerleaders make.
Sophy Laufer
@sophylulaufer · Dallas Cowboys@sophylulaufer
Moving from California to Texas at eighteen with the single stated goal of making this squad usually ends badly. Sophy Laufer made it, and marked her 21st birthday still on the roster.
She rose to attention as a child in dance videos online, still competes outside the NFL season, and teaches. Her friendship with Kylie Dickson generates a steady stream of paired posts that both of their audiences turn up for.
Anna Kate Sundvold
@annakatesundvold · Dallas Cowboys@annakatesundvold
Her Instagram bio describes her as a finance girl figuring out the corporate world, which is a rarer day job on this list than dance instructor or social media manager.
The TCU alumna has been on the roster through the whole Netflix era without ever becoming a storyline, and that shows in one of the cleaner grids on the squad. Heavy on performance stills, light on branded posts.
Chandi Dayle
@chandidayle · Dallas Cowboys@chandidayle
Six seasons made her one of the longest-tenured members of the squad, and season two put her through it after she stepped down as group leader over a rule broken on a team trip to the Bahamas.
She juggled four jobs during her run, including social media marketing for a pediatric dentistry practice and pharmacy tech work in the family business. She has since moved back to Arizona and coaches the Arizona Pom Line.
Megan McElaney
@megan.mcelaney · Dallas Cowboys@megan.mcelaney
The raise had two architects, and Megan McElaney was the other one, in the same rooms with HR and legal that Jada McLean pushed to open.
The Oceanside, California native made the team in 2021 and worked as a marketing director alongside it. She now co-hosts The Sidekicks Pod and is signed to Wilhelmina, which makes her one of the few to convert the uniform into representation with a major agency.
Armani Latimer
@ac_latimer · Dallas Cowboys@ac_latimer
During a December game against the Bengals, Armani Latimer performed without her wig for the first time, turning her alopecia areata diagnosis into a public moment in front of a full stadium. Teammate Karley Swindel told PEOPLE the squad was moved before they even took the field for “Thunderstruck.”
She made the team during the pandemic, worked as a billing coordinator at a law firm, and plans to attend law school. Alopecia advocate now sits in her bio above everything else. Black creators are having a similar run across the platform, and our roundup of top Black female Instagram models is worth a scroll alongside her feed.
Brooklyn Davis
@brooklyndavis01 · Dallas Cowboys@brooklyndavis01
Brand partnerships are where modern NFL cheerleaders actually earn, and Brooklyn Davis was one of five members the organization put in front of the Rent the Runway holiday campaign.
That campaign highlighted personal backstories instead of the uniform, a meaningful shift in how these squads are marketed. Away from the field she works in partnership sales for a museum, and she is represented by The Digital Brand Architects.
KayDianna MacKenzie
@kaydiannamackenzie · Dallas Cowboys@kaydiannamackenzie
Three world championship dance titles and twelve years of studio training make KD one of the most decorated dancers to wear the star. She captained the TCU Showgirls before Dallas.
She became group leader in season two after Chandi Dayle stepped down, a promotion that arrived under awkward circumstances and that she handled without drama. She now runs two ventures of her own, the KayDianna’s Korner podcast and a mock tryout program for aspiring cheerleaders.
McKenna Gehrke
@mckennagehrke · Dallas Cowboys@mckennagehrke
A single sideline clip is all it takes now, which is how McKenna Gehrke became one of the cheerleaders NFL beat writers started covering by name. Her TikTok following, at nearly 134,000 with 4.7 million likes, outruns her Instagram.
She was among the members picked to represent the squad on Celebrity Family Feud opposite the Harlem Globetrotters, and posted the behind-the-scenes set photos herself. Her bio currently reads beauty, lifestyle, wellness, and in my bridal era.
Karley Swindel
@karley_swindel · Dallas Cowboys@karley_swindel
Her bio lists choreography and private lessons before anything else, which tells you she treats the account as a working dancer’s storefront rather than a fan page. Plenty of NFL cheerleaders monetize through brands; she monetizes through teaching.
She fronted the squad’s Rent the Runway partnership and gave the interview that framed Armani Latimer’s alopecia moment for a national audience. If her mix of technique and styling appeals, our list of top American Instagram models runs deeper on that lane.
Camille Sturdivant
@camisturdi · Dallas Cowboys@camisturdi
Rookie of the Year in 2023, she went from newcomer to one of the squad’s most recognizable faces in two seasons and is now in her third year, one of the fastest rises among current NFL cheerleaders.
Her acceptance post thanked the women of DCC for helping her become a better performer, professional and person, which is a fair summary of her arc on screen. She co-hosts the Two Cs in a Pod podcast and is signed with Rewired Talent.
Quinton Peron
@itsaquintonthing · Los Angeles Rams@itsaquintonthing
Walking into the March 2018 Rams audition, he said the moment felt less like competition and more like instant recognition of what he and Napoleon Jinnies were about to do.
Ten months later the pair performed at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, the first men ever to cheer at the game. Rams captain Emily Leibert called them trailblazers on Good Morning America. He has since choreographed, appeared on Nickelodeon’s Game Changers, and competed on season 34 of The Amazing Race.
Napoleon Jinnies
@napoleonjinnies · Los Angeles Rams@napoleonjinnies
History arrived in 2018 when the Rams put him on the field as a dancer rather than a stuntman, making him one of the first male cheerleaders in league history alongside Peron and the Saints’ Jesse Hernandez. He is also the most visible of the NFL gay cheerleaders working today.
He heard about tryouts on a lunch break at Disneyland, where he was performing, and applied that night without knowing men were allowed. He was the only boy on his junior high and high school dance teams and was bullied for being gay, a story he told Refinery29 in detail. Five Rams seasons and an Abercrombie Fierce campaign later, his bio opens with the record. Our list of the best gay YouTubers to subscribe to covers more creators pushing the same door.
NFL Teams That Don’t Have Cheerleaders
Twenty six of the league’s thirty two franchises field a cheer or dance squad. Six do not, and the NFL teams that don’t have cheerleaders had more specific reasons than tradition. Every one plays in a cold-weather market, and most play outdoors for at least part of the season.
| Team | Last squad | Why it ended |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Bills | Buffalo Jills, 2014 | Disbanded after cheerleaders sued over pay reported as low as $150 per season and strict conduct rules |
| Chicago Bears | Honey Bears, 1985 | Ownership ended the program after the Super Bowl win, saying cheerleaders were not needed |
| Green Bay Packers | Official squad, 1988 | Market research showed fans did not care; nearby collegiate squads still appear at Lambeau |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | Steelerettes, 1970 | Organizational decision, despite the Steelers having fielded one of the league’s earliest squads |
| New York Giants | Never had one | Community programs and alternative game-day entertainment instead |
| Cleveland Browns | Never had one | The Dawg Pound and mascot Chomps carry game-day energy |
The 2010s wage lawsuits are the thread connecting several of these. Cases involving the Raiders and the Bills pushed some franchises to restructure their squads and convinced others to drop NFL cheerleaders altogether. Super Bowl XLV in 2011 remains the only one played without a single cheerleader on either sideline, because the Packers and Steelers both qualified.
Which squads pull the biggest audiences
A Betway study ranked the league’s squads by Instagram followers, Instagram hashtag posts and TikTok hashtag posts. The official accounts of NFL cheerleaders tell a very different story from the individual ones.
| Squad | IG followers | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders | 663,000 | The uniform hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History |
| Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleaders | 214,000 | Second most-followed squad account, well behind Dallas |
| New England Patriots Cheerleaders | 157,000 | Ranked eighth overall on well-rounded social performance |
| Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders | 130,000 | Third overall, with 18,477 Instagram hashtag posts |
| Houston Texans Cheerleaders | 119,000 | Sixth overall, 6,201 hashtag posts |
| Cincinnati Ben-Gals | 52,200 | Took the top spot on TikTok hashtag volume with 68,700 posts |
Where the pipeline actually starts
Almost every one of these NFL cheerleaders came through a college program first. Alabama, Ole Miss, TCU, Kentucky, UC Davis, Arizona State and Butler are all represented above, and a nationally ranked outfit like the UCLA cheerleader squad feeds the same pool. The audition math is brutal: roughly 500 women tried out the year Sarah Shahi made the Dallas squad, and the Rams saw around 300 candidates the year they took their first two men.
NFL Cheerleader Uniforms, Calendars and Pay
The uniform is the product. Dallas figured that out in 1972, when choreographer Texie Waterman built an all-adult squad and the team redesigned the outfit around it, swapping the traditional cheer skirt for hot pants and creating the blue-and-white look still in use. Five years later the Cowboys produced the first NFL cheerleader poster with photographer Bob Shaw, and the commercial model behind NFL cheerleaders uniforms was set.
- The Dallas look remains the benchmark, and the vest, boots and star are trademarked. That is why any hottest NFL cheerleader uniforms conversation starts there.
- Miami and Cincinnati take different routes. Dolphins styling leans on South Beach high fashion, while the Ben-Gals built the league’s strongest TikTok presence.
- Cold-weather squads carry a wardrobe problem the warm-market teams do not, and the added cost is one reason several northern franchises dropped their NFL cheerleaders entirely.
- Swimsuit calendars are a decades-old revenue line. The Jets Flight Crew shoot is among the best known, and NFL cheerleaders swimsuits content still drives a large share of squad engagement. Our roundup of the hottest bikini models on Instagram covers the wider genre.
Pay is the part that changed most recently. The 400 percent raise negotiated by Jada McLean and Megan McElaney, revealed on camera in June 2025, reset expectations for NFL cheerleaders across the league. The role is still part-time, built around practice, training camp, games, appearances, photo shoots and charity events, which puts these athletes closer to creator economics than to player contracts. VegasInsider valued Victoria Kalina’s sponsored posts at around $3,750 each, or roughly $195,000 a year at one post per week, which dwarfs the sideline paycheck. For a sense of the equivalent on other platforms, see our breakdown of how much TikTok influencers make.
Hottest NFL Cheerleaders Compared: The Top 10
| # | Name | Handle | Team | Followers | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sarah Shahi | @sarahshahi | Cowboys | 1.4M | Faked the audition, became a Hollywood lead |
| 2 | Reece Weaver | @reece_christinee | Cowboys | 1M | Netflix breakout, boohoo collection |
| 3 | Kylie Dickson | @kylie_dickson | Cowboys | 797K | Ole Miss gymnast, signed to UTA |
| 4 | Stacy Keibler | @stacykeibler | Ravens | 666K | Sideline to WWE Hall of Fame |
| 5 | Teri Hatcher | @officialterihatcher | 49ers | 653K | Gold Rush Girl turned Golden Globe winner |
| 6 | Kaylyn Slevin | @kaylynslevin | Chargers | 568K | Miss Charm USA 2025, Chicken Girls actress |
| 7 | Charisma Carpenter | @charismacarpenter | Chargers | 378K | Cordelia Chase on Buffy and Angel |
| 8 | Charly Barby | @charly.barby | Cowboys | 374K | Made the squad after a pulmonary embolism |
| 9 | Victoria Kalina | @victoriakalina | Cowboys | 296K | Highest engagement rate on the cast |
| 10 | Kleine Powell | @kleinepowell | Cowboys | 251K | 912K across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube |
Conclusion
Two things reshaped this list. Netflix turned a squad of anonymous dancers into named public figures with their own audiences, and the Rams proved in 2018 that the job was never actually about gender. Between them they explain why the hottest cheerleaders in the NFL now have careers that outlast the sideline: alopecia advocacy, labor negotiation, podcasting, agency representation, law school. The hot cheerleaders NFL fans once knew only by pom-pom are running their own brands.
Follow the accounts that match what you are there for. Reece Weaver and Kylie Dickson for the creator side, Armani Latimer and Jada McLean for the people changing the job itself, Sarah Shahi and Charisma Carpenter for what the sideline can lead to, Napoleon Jinnies and Quinton Peron for the pair who opened the door. All twenty five NFL cheerleaders above have live profiles worth the tap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the most followed NFL cheerleader on Instagram?
Sarah Shahi tops this list at 1.4 million, though she left the Dallas squad in 2000 and built that audience as an actress. Among people currently on an NFL sideline, Reece Weaver leads with 1 million on Instagram and 1.3 million on TikTok, followed by teammate Kylie Dickson at 797,000. Reece is also the kind of cheerleader NFL fans now follow year-round rather than only in season, with a boohoo clothing collection and full-time creator work off the back of the Netflix series.
Which NFL teams do not have cheerleaders?
Six franchises field no squad: the Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers. Those are the NFL teams that don’t have cheerleaders as of the current season. The Giants and Browns never had one. The Bills ended the Jills in 2014 after a lawsuit over pay reported as low as $150 per season. That leaves 26 of 32 teams fielding NFL cheerleaders in some form.
Are there NFL gay cheerleaders?
Napoleon Jinnies and Quinton Peron of the Los Angeles Rams are both openly gay and became two of the first male cheerleaders in league history in 2018, then the first men to perform at a Super Bowl the following February. Jinnies has spoken publicly about being bullied for being gay through junior high and high school, and later modeled for Abercrombie’s partnership with The Trevor Project. The New England Patriots have also had out cheerleaders including Driss Dallahi, Steven Sonntag and Parker West.
How much do NFL cheerleaders get paid?
What NFL cheerleaders earn varies enormously by team and has changed fast. The Dallas squad received a 400 percent raise negotiated by Jada McLean and Megan McElaney, revealed on camera in 2025 after months of stalled talks. At the other end of the history, Buffalo Jills members reported earning as little as $150 for an entire season before the squad was disbanded. Social media now often pays better than the job itself: VegasInsider estimated Victoria Kalina could command around $3,750 per sponsored post.
Which NFL cheerleading squad has the most Instagram followers?
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders account leads at roughly 663,000, nearly 449,000 clear of the Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleaders at 214,000. New England follows at 157,000, Miami at 130,000 and Houston at 119,000. The Cincinnati Ben-Gals sit lower on Instagram at 52,200 but topped a Betway ranking overall thanks to 68,700 TikTok hashtag posts, the strongest short-form presence in the league.
What is the story behind NFL cheerleader uniforms?
The modern template for NFL cheerleader uniforms dates to 1972, when Dallas brought in New York choreographer Texie Waterman to build an all-adult squad. Because members were now over 18, the team redesigned the outfit, replacing the traditional cheer skirt with hot pants and creating the vest-and-boots look still worn today. The Cowboys produced the first NFL cheerleader poster in 1977 with photographer Bob Shaw, and that uniform now hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Do NFL cheerleaders still do swimsuit calendars?
Several squads do, and NFL cheerleaders swimsuits calendars remain one of the older revenue streams in the business. The New York Jets Flight Crew shoot is among the best known, and swimsuit content still drives a large share of engagement on official squad accounts. Bonnie-Jill Laflin appeared on the cover of the Dallas swimsuit calendar during her time on that squad, before moving into sports broadcasting with ESPN and NFL Network.
How do you become an NFL cheerleader?
Nearly all of these NFL cheerleaders danced at a competitive college program first, including Alabama, Ole Miss, TCU, Kentucky, UC Davis, Arizona State and Butler. Auditions run in the spring and the odds are steep: around 500 women tried out the year Sarah Shahi made the Dallas squad in 1999, and the Rams received roughly 300 applications the year Jinnies and Peron were selected. Several people here failed at least once before making it, including Charly Barby, Kelly Villares and Ava Lahey, who waited three years between attempts.
