“America’s Sweethearts” shows the beauty and the pain that comes with being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. But a couple of the series’ stars say they’re still fighting to set one record straight.
Chatting with TODAY.com in studio prior to the cheerleaders’ performance on the Rockefeller Center plaza, DCC members Reece Weaver and Jada Mclean say the show is a predominantly accurate depiction of life on the team.
Mclean says the Netflix docuseries does a “really good job of showing exactly what takes place, and they don’t really edit things to not be what they were. I mean, they show you really what it’s like.”
Echoing her teammate’s sentiment, Weaver adds that the series’ production does a “really great job at showing what happens behind the scenes and peels back those layers.”
Weaver notes, however, that while the series “shows authenticity and vulnerability, and a lot of people can relate to our stories,” the cheerleaders continue to fight one primary misunderstanding.
“I do think that as Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, or just NFL cheerleaders in general, people still maybe don’t think or see us as athletes in a sense,” Weaver says.
She continues, “But I think the world now is starting to see, like, ‘Oh no, these girls are really strong and really athletic, and it takes a lot of grit to do what they do.’”
Season 2 of “America’s Sweethearts” debuted June 18, once again following the Cowboys cheerleaders from tryouts through playoffs.
While the first season introduced the audience to NFL cheerleading and its complex dynamics, Season 2 takes a closer look at individual women’s stories surrounding health complications, difficult family structures and abusive relationships, among other areas.
Though they star in the docuseries, Mclean says the cheerleaders caught a glimpse of the first two episodes just one week before the premiere, and then they watched “with the world. It’s a very real time for us.”
Both Mclean and Weaver say nothing “shocked” them about the way the show panned out. But Mclean noted she didn’t expect such emotion to be on full display.
“Honestly, it’s just more tears,” she says. “I think that I wasn’t expecting a lot of people’s stories that — even our own personal teammates — that we hear them speaking their stories, and it touches us because we weren’t there to hear them talk about it.”
Weaver agrees, adding that she appreciated being able to “hear what other people’s experience was, how they’ve come to this dream and how they got here. I think that’s really special to hear.”
America’s Sweethearts always dazzle on the field, but one Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader had an extra special performance last week. NCB 5’s Maria Guerrero spoke with Armani Latimer about her empowering performance.
This article originally appeared on TODAY.com. Read more from TODAY:
