A male Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader danced during a preseason game. Within hours, some people were talking about canceling their season tickets — and other Eagles fans were practically volunteering to take them.
The clip took off after NFL aggregator Dov Kleiman labeled it “TRENDING,” saying many fans were upset about the Eagles “having male cheerleaders this season” and that some were threatening to cancel. The replies ranged from mockery to outright anger. One person said Philadelphia was taking “Brotherly Love” too far. Another somehow connected the routine to the Eagles going 0-3 in the preseason.
But threatened cancellations produced a different reaction from people who were considerably less bothered by what they saw.
“If you want to cancel your football tickets because of the cheerleading…. Please HURRY UP,” one person wrote on X. “Cause real fans want to lock in on those tickets.”
Another X user skipped the debate altogether: “Send those season tickets my way idc about the cheerleaders I just want to watch the game.”
There was also a fairly important detail getting lost in the commotion: the Eagles did not just add male cheerleaders.
Some of these men were already there
𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: The Eagles’ cheerleaders have gone viral for their preseason dance routine, with many fans upset about having male cheerleaders this season.
Some fans even threatened to cancel their season tickets. pic.twitter.com/4HF6AI4VP4
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) August 31, 2026
James LeGette has been an Eagles cheerleader for years. Philadelphia had three men on its 32-person squad last season — LeGette, Alex Fan and Dalton Walsh — and all three returned for 2026. Rookie Jackson O’Brien joined them, bringing the number to four.
None of this was hidden. The Eagles announced their squad themselves. The men performed at games, appeared in team photographs and stood on the same sideline thousands of fans had already spent Sundays watching.
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And even that history only gets you back a few years.
Kyle Tanguay made the Eagles squad in 2019 and was widely described at the time as the franchise’s first male cheerleader in 35 years. That qualifier — in 35 years — leads to the part of this story that makes the current uproar feel especially strange.
In 1984, Paul Kramer and Mark Merschen were Eagles cheerleaders.
They performed at Veterans Stadium and remained with the squad through the regular season. A contemporary Philadelphia Inquirer account recorded boos during one preseason appearance, although later recollections differed over just how hostile the reception really was. The program went in another direction the following year, and Kramer and Merschen largely disappeared from the Eagles story until Tanguay’s arrival decades later brought that history back into view.
For a little perspective, Ghostbusters was one of the biggest movies in America when Philadelphia last had this argument.
Forty-two years later, a few seconds of preseason footage were enough to start it again.
About those season tickets
The anger around the clip is real. Whether it turns into people actually surrendering their season tickets is another matter.
There is a recent precedent. Last summer, similar claims spread after two male cheerleaders joined the Minnesota Vikings squad. The backlash grew large enough that the Vikings addressed it publicly. Despite the threats online, the team said it had received no season-ticket cancellations because of the cheerleaders.
Now Philadelphia has its own version of the story, except the supposed cause of the uproar has been sitting on the Eagles sideline for quite a while. Three male cheerleaders were on last year’s squad. Men have been part of the group every season since 2019.
Some of the fans now threatening to walk away may already have watched them perform.
