![]() Despite the prestige, cheerleaders were not always paid for the time spent prepping for those appearances. “Show group is coveted because that’s the group that gets to go on the USO tours, and also any performances that are outside of the game-day setting,” Wilkins explained. ![]() She not only made the cut, she was named to the elite 16-person “show group.” “There are women who quit their day jobs just for training camp because it is so strenuous and so draining,” she said. (In the end, some 36 ladies - including performers from the previous year - make the squad.) Of the 500 women who auditioned, Wilkins was one of just 43 chosen for the two-month training camp. So, after graduation, Wilkins headed to Dallas to try out - and wowed the judges, as seen on the CMT-channel show “Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team.” While video of her performance played, Kelli Finglass, the squad’s longtime director, said, “There are rookie candidates that are stronger than the veterans. “She would reach out, saying, ‘Hey, don’t forget about us, we want you.’ ” The scout “kept in touch throughout the years,” she said. Wilkins went on to attend Louisiana State University, where she was an LSU Tiger Girl, graduating in 2014 with a degree in mass communications. “She followed me and asked me to audition at 18, but I wanted to go to college first.” “She was surprised to learn I was only 16 and not 18,” she recalled. My mom ran a dance studio, and she had a couple of students that went on to become Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.”Īt a dance competition when she was 16, Wilkins was approached by a DCC scout. The daughter of an electrical-engineer father and a dance-instructor mother, Wilkins wanted to be a DCC since “seventh or eighth grade. My goal is to help other cheerleaders, and women as a whole.” “I could’ve settled with the Cowboys for just my back wages and unpaid wages that they owed me - they offered that,” she said. Erica Wilkins featured in the Dallas Cowboys annual calendar Misty Keasler Wilkins, who doesn’t call herself a feminist, said she is “pursuing justice” for other women who will be part of that legacy one day. The organization’s cheerleaders make up what is easily the most legendary and high-profile squad in the NFL, and certainly the only one to have had two TV movies made about them (in 19) and to have had their uniform - that iconic blue-and-white vest and shorts look - added into the Smithsonian’s collection. Former cheerleaders on the Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints have also filed similar complaints.īut this is the first time the behemoth that is the Dallas Cowboys, beloved as “America’s Team,” has entered the conversation. Earlier this month, five former Houston Texans cheerleaders sued that team for failing to compensate them fully and for creating a hostile work environment. She’s not the only ex-cheerleader on a crusade for change. Wilkins also claims she worked hours - many of them in AT&T Stadium, team owner Jerry Jones’ $1.2 billion football temple - for which she wasn’t compensated, and that she wasn’t paid overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. Cheerleaders, meanwhile, are paid $8 per hour for practices - just above minimum wage - and flat rates for games and appearances, such as calendar signings. In the suit, she claims that cheerleaders were paid less than the team’s mascot - a costumed cowboy called Rowdy, and played by a man who reportedly makes $65,000 a year plus commission. Now, Wilkins, whose career ended in August 2017, is suing the Cowboys organization for lost wages. ![]() I can’t walk down to my leasing office and hand them my uniform for the month.” “But at the end of the day, prestige doesn’t pay my rent. “Yes, it is prestigious,” Wilkins, now 26, told The Post of cheering for the Cowboys. ![]() Her total annual earnings? About $4,700 after taxes. She appeared solo on the cover of the group’s swimsuit calendar, was deemed a star on a reality show about the team, and performed onstage with Blake Shelton and Usher. Then 22, the Friendswood, Texas, native was one of just 16 women to make the team’s “show group,” an elite squad made up of the best technical dancers on the team. © TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS.Dak Prescott booed at Super Bowl while being named Man of the YearĮmmitt Smith says NFL devalues running backs: 'It's bulls-t'Ĭowboys star reveals he has a foot fetish, likes toes in candid answerĬowboys hire ex-Jets assistant as offensive coordinatorĭuring the 2014-2015 NFL season, Erica Wilkins had a banner rookie year as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. ![]()
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