NFL

Don’t fall for the NFL’s feel-good moment with male cheerleaders

When it was announced a few weeks ago that, for the first time ever, there would be male cheerleaders performing at the Super Bowl, it was met with fawning media fanfare. Headlines about how the two Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders, Napoleon Jinnies and Quinton Peron, are “making history” splashed across CBS and USA Today, and on “Good Morning America,” Michael Strahan said the two guys were “breaking barriers.”

But, in truth, this move toward gender equality in the NFL doesn’t solve the real problem.

If the NFL really wanted to empower its cheer squads, it would start by paying female performers a living wage and treating them like valued employees.

NFL cheerleaders have been objectified ever since the original Dallas Cowboys president, Tex Schramm, wanted his girls and their uniforms to look sexy in the ’70s. But more recently, cheerleaders have claimed outright exploitation. In May, performers for the Washington Redskins alleged that some members were asked to pose topless in front of sponsors and act as “escorts” for them at a private club. (In September, after an internal investigation, a Redskins spokesman called reports of the allegations “accurate” but “greatly exaggerated.”)

Also last year, cheerleaders for the Houston Texans claimed they were paid less than minimum wage and called “jelly bellies” and “crack whores” by a coach, who has since resigned. Meanwhile, Bailey Davis, a former cheerleader for the New Orleans Saints, said she was “slut-shamed” and fired for posting a photo of herself in a lacy one-piece on Instagram. (Both cases are in arbitration. The Texans said they “do not tolerate mistreatment” of employees and “look forward to vigorously defending ourselves,” while the Saints have denied discrimination and have since added a male cheerleader to their roster.)

At the same time, former Cowboys cheerleader Erica Wilkins filed a lawsuit, claiming the team’s male mascot made $65,000 a year while she and her colleagues raked in $8 an hour for practices and a paltry fee of about $200 for game days. (Mediation failed, and the case is in arbitration.)

Minimum wage is the standard for cheerleaders on many teams including the Jets and the Oakland Raiders, but these women deserve a lot more. NFL squad members regularly perform live in front of more than 60,000 fans, practice up to 20 hours a week and entertain at local functions throughout the year. Wilkins says she was paid $4,700 for her entire rookie season, which mainly spanned August 2014 to January 2015. Contrast that with a Radio City Rockette, who earns between $36,400 and $39,000 plus benefits for a similar-length season, according to a 2017 Business Insider report.

Part of the reason for the minuscule pay is that being a cheerleader is seen as a badge of honor rather than a job, with perks like yearly photo shoots in exotic locales or trips to perform for the military abroad touted as privileges. Being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader was “prestigious,” Wilkins admitted to The Post in June. “But at the end of the day, prestige doesn’t pay my rent.”

Plus, female cheerleaders are hit with grooming costs such as spray tans, perfectly maintained hair and camera-ready makeup — all of which comes out of their own pockets, according to multiple reports.

It’s not that the two male Rams cheerleaders aren’t deserving of praise for their talent. But peppering a few talented male dancers into female squads won’t eliminate the NFL’s long history of exploitation. Neither will changing uniforms to be more “family friendly,” as both the Redskins and the Saints recently did.

The only way to treat cheerleaders fairly is to acknowledge they’re performers who deserve a proper salary. A brief, feel-good moment of inclusion shouldn’t distract us from that fact.