Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on Tuesday criticized the NFL and the Minnesota Vikings over their inclusion of male cheerleaders. 

This month, the organization unveiled its cheerleading roster for the 2025 NFL season, introducing Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn, the team’s male cheerleaders, in an Instagram video.

“The next generation of cheer has arrived!” the Vikings wrote on Aug. 9. 

The video sparked online backlash, with Shiek and Conn receiving derogatory slurs and hateful comments amidst debates over male cheerleaders and masculinity.

“I would like to ask the ownership of the NFL and the commissioner, what the hell are you doing?” Tuberville questioned on the “Hot Mic” podcast, which was aired by OutKick, a conservative sports news site. “If you’re going to be woke and you’re going to try to, you know, take the men out of men’s sports … then you’re going to have a huge problem.”

“I hope to God it doesn’t spread to Atlanta, Texas, Dallas, or some of our NFL teams, because you’ll lose it. People will actually quit buying tickets and attending,” said Tuberville, a former college football coach who revealed in May his decision to leave the Senate and run for governor of Alabama.

“This narrative isn’t just about having men cheerleaders. It’s about pushing an agenda to incorporate gender into sports and showing that ‘we’re going to take the masculinity out of it a little bit,’ which won’t happen in the South,” he claimed.

Male dancers have been part of NFL teams since 2018, when Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies joined the Los Angeles Rams’ 40-member squad. In 2019, they made history as the first men to perform at a Super Bowl game, during the Rams’ matchup against the New England Patriots in Atlanta.

In an op-ed published Tuesday by The Guardian, former Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end R.K. Russell wrote that complaints about male cheerleaders “are even more baseless than the Monday Morning Quarterbacks.” 

“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 It’s about the mere existence and visibility of men on NFL cheer squads who don’t conform to the rigid, outdated ideas of masculinity that so many use sport, and football in particular, to defend,” wrote Russell, who came out publicly as bisexual to ESPN in 2019. “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.” 

A Minnesota Vikings spokesperson did not immediately return The Hill’s request for comment on Tuberville’s comments or the broader backlash. The organization told NBC News last week that, “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.” 

“In 2025, approximately one third of NFL teams have male cheerleaders,” the team said. “Every member of the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders program has an impressive dance background and went through the same rigorous audition process. Individuals were selected because of their talent, passion for dance and dedication to elevating the game day experience. We support all our cheerleaders and are proud of the role they play as ambassadors of the organization.” 

Responding to claims that some fans have canceled their season tickets over the team’s inclusion of male cheerleaders, the Vikings told NBC News that no fans have done so. 

In a joint Instagram post on Saturday, Shiek and Conn appeared to respond to the controversy, captioning a photo showing the two of them in their cheer uniforms: “wait…did someone say our name?”

A number of prominent Republican political leaders have also been cheerleaders: Former President George W. Bush cheered at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., serving as head cheerleader his senior year, and at Yale University. Former President Reagan was a cheerleader at Eureka College in the 1930s.