Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Says Packers Players Yelled In Her Face During Game
Darian Lassiter of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders performs during a football game against the New York Giants on Nov. 12, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.
A Dallas Cowboys cheerleader said that Green Bay Packers players were disrespectful to her and other cheerleaders during the Packers-Cowboys playoff game on Sunday.
“I have never experienced such disrespect from the other teams’ players to the cheerleaders in my five years as an NFL cheerleader,” Darian Lassiter said in a TikTok video posted Wednesday night.
She gave an example of when the Packers scored a touchdown, the players would come up to her and her teammates, who she said were standing on the sidelines “minding our own business,” and start yelling at them and getting close to their faces.
Several of Lassiter’s teammates echoed her complaint in the comments of the video, writing, “They were extremely disrespectful to us and I was shocked” and “Yet we have to stand there and accept the disrespect.” One teammate wrote that she “literally was on the verge of tears.”
Lassiter said she feels like the yelling would fall under unsportsmanlike conduct, which players can be fined thousands of dollars for.
“It’s so crazy how they can’t do that to the Cowboys players or any other players, but they can do it to the cheerleaders and nothing’s going to happen,” she said. “I understand the playoffs is a huge deal. I truly get it, but that does not mean your humbleness and respect for women flies out the window.”
Neither the Cowboys or the Packers immediately responded to a request for comment.
Some NFL cheerleaders have been fighting for fair pay and equal treatment in the last few years, but many say they are are afraid to speak up out of fear that NFL teams would just get rid of the squad instead of making changes.
In 2014, some cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills sued the team for unfair pay and poor working conditions. A few days later, the Bills suspended the cheerleading squad. Ten years later, they’re still not back.
Green Bay won Sunday’s game 48-32. Lassiter ended her video saying now that the Cowboys are out of the playoffs, she’s rooting for every team but the Packers.
