Dough! Magazine




PART-TIME 
CHEERLEADERS

“I’m an NFL Cheerleader and a Financial Analyst.”

The most modest of salaries to be made in the NFL is $750,000USD. That is, on the field. Give or take, the average footballer makes a cool $2 million with the superstar QB’s making upwards of $50 million. On the sidelines however, this disparity diversifies. There are the bench-sitters, first aid staff, waterboys (a shockingly lucrative position) and at halftime, the cheer squad.

In popular imagination, cheerleaders are inextricably tied to American football. Full of pep and packed with glitter, the formal task of the cheer squad is to fill the stadium with a hormonally-charged air under the guise of “spirit.” Although not every NFL team has a squad anymore (mainly due to their expense), cheerleading is a cornerstone of the games culture which is why it becomes hard to parse why their average salary weighs in at about $22,500 per year.

A woman by the name of Emily Marshall has made rounds in the listicle media variety for juggling her job as an NFL Cheerleader for the New England Patriots and her day job as a financial analyst. Under the running title I'm an NFL cheerleader and a financial analyst—here's how I balance it all, Emily details her double life, which notably, is not an outlier within the industry. Cheerleaders are notoriously underpaid, which means most must supplement this side gig salary with a full-time job.

But Marshall isn’t alone, articles like this crop up every once in a while with boisterous undertones.



First trans NFL cheerleader compares role to becoming doctor, says no  one will stop ‘this show’  

Director of operations by day, NFL cheerleader by night  



The Double Life of a Cancer Researcher and NFL Cheerleader  






At face value, women seem to be winning here. But within the context of an industry that overvalues male players, coaches, waterboys and mascots, these articles sensationalize and validate depreciating labor that is traditionally occupied by women.