[Cecil Terwilliger]

Former NFL player RK Russell weighs in.

The people expressing outrage over male cheerleaders on the Vikings aren’t talking about work ethic, talent or dedication. Their complaints are even more baseless than the Monday Morning Quarterbacks – a term created to address those who criticize players with the benefit of hindsight.

This isn’t about performance at all. It’s about presence. It’s about the mere existence and visibility of men on NFL cheer squads who don’t conform to the rigid, outdated ideas of masculinity that so many use sport, and football in particular, to defend.

What this backlash really reveals is not fear of change, but fear of visibility. The outrage over male cheerleaders isn’t about sports. It’s about control: over masculinity, over image, and over who gets to be seen and celebrated in public spaces or on the global stage of the NFL. It’s the same impulse that drives anti-LBGTQ+ legislation, the same fear that fuels book bans, bathroom bills, and attacks on drag performers. This moment isn’t isolated; it’s part of a broader cultural backlash to liberation.

And just as Christian nationalism has long been weaponized to marginalize queer people, so too has sport. Sport is used to draw lines around what’s “American” and “man enough”. But those lines were never drawn for protection; they were drawn for power.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...rs-nfl-vikings