Recent social media posts highlighted that the Minnesota Vikings added two new male cheerleaders to their 2025 roster this year.
Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn are the first male cheerleaders on the team since the 1990s, according to the Vikings.
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“While many fans may be seeing male cheerleaders for the first time at Vikings games, male cheerleaders have been part of previous Vikings teams and have long been associated with collegiate and professional cheerleading,” a statement from the Vikings said.
The Vikings aren’t the only football team adding male cheerleaders. At least 10 NFL teams have male cheerleaders in their 2025 rosters, nearly one-third of the NFL. In 2019 the Los Angeles Rams had two male cheerleaders with their squad during the Superbowl game.
In a video posted to the Vikings’ YouTube channel, Conn said he chose to try out for the Vikings cheerleaders because he loved the way they incorporated technique and style into their dancing.
Shiek said he wanted to be a “role model for other little kids who don’t know that this is an option.”
“I went to a lot of Vikings games with my family, mainly my dad,” Shiek said in the video. “I was definitely watching the cheerleaders thinking, like, ‘I wish I could do that.’”
Shiek and Conn made their first appearance on the field Aug. 9 at a preseason game against the Houston Texans at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
“We support all our cheerleaders and are proud of the role they play as ambassadors of the organization,” a statement from the Vikings said.