Philly native James LeGette, one of the NFL's few male cheerleaders, serves as an inspiration

PHILADELPHIA — Five years into in his NFL career, Eagles cheerleader James LeGette won’t be alone in the men’s locker room.

Being the lone man on a dance team is a familiar experience for the small group of male NFL cheerleaders across the league. But in 2025, the Eagles cheer team will include three male cheerleaders, their largest contingent ever, with rookies Alex Fan and Dalton Walsh joining the squad.

Before LeGette joined the Eagles cheerleaders, the Birds had had just one male cheerleader in the last 30 years, and his tenure with the team ended before LeGette started. But knowing that the Eagles had a male cheerleader boosted LeGette’s confidence as he considered auditioning.

Four years later, he did the same for Fan and Walsh. After they advanced to the semifinal round of auditions, LeGette reached out on Instagram to invite them to take a dance class with him.

“In college, I was just the only one,” Walsh said. “No males ever even came to clinics, so it was just me every single audition round, every single year. I think that definitely puts a lot more pressure on oneself than there needs to be. Being able to see not only James, but Alex, and also a few other males helped me calm my nerves.”

LeGette, a special education teacher by day, dreamed of being a performer his entire life, growing up involved with dance, theater and cheerleading. He always loved the Eagles, but he had no clue that becoming an NFL cheerleader was even on the table. He started working as a performer at Sesame Place, where one of his coworkers encouraged him to audition for the Eagles’ cheerleaders. LeGette made it to the finals, but didn’t make the squad his first time out. He tried out again in 2021 and finally made the squad.

Walsh grew up playing a number of sports, including gymnastics, but didn’t start dance until middle school, when he went with a few of his friends to an acro dance class. After one class, the studio owner pulled him aside and told him she wanted him on their competition team, so Walsh threw himself into learning all forms of dance. He was the first man to join the dance team at St. Joe’s, but despite the school’s traditional Catholic background, everyone was extremely supportive.

“They posted all about us, and they were super proud, and they didn’t ever hold back on the gender affiliation of anything with dance, I was right on the front page,” Walsh said. “We were on social media. They were super stoked and proud of all of us. Everyone was really nice. There were a lot of heartwarming fans and everything.”

Walsh debated whether he wanted to be an NFL cheerleader or to try out for an NBA dance team, but ultimately decided he wanted to pursue being an Eagles cheerleader, because his dad, who died a few years ago, was a lifelong Eagles fan. “I feel like I’m carrying that on with me into my life, and he’s looking down on me, and very super proud,” Walsh said.

Fan was a dance minor at Columbia, but had never danced in the pro cheer style before getting to college. When Fan joined the Columbia dance team, they didn’t have uniforms for male team members. His coach had to buy him an outfit from the Columbia bookstore, which he wore for months while they had a proper uniform made.

One of his former dance teammates had become an NFL cheerleader, and Fan wanted to pursue it professionally if he could. But he knew it wasn’t a guarantee he’d even be considered.

“I never would have auditioned, honestly, if there hadn’t been male cheerleaders before,” Fan said. “... To be able to come to a team where I feel that there’s already a system in place for us to all be treated equally, and for us to truly experience what it is to be an NFL cheerleader, not to be a boy on an NFL cheer team, has been such an amazing opportunity.”

The Eagles cheer team is closer to a college dance team than a college cheer team, where the performers are more focused on stunts and the men primarily throw big tumbling passes and help support the flyers. All the Eagles cheerleaders do the same dance routines, and each moment of the game, from the moment they run out of the tunnel to the end of the game, is choreographed — although LeGette likes to throw a tumble in there now and again.

Only 12 of the NFL’s 32 franchises have male cheerleaders (although seven franchises have no cheerleaders at all). NFL cheerleaders have become more popular online, especially following the release of "America’s Sweethearts," the Netflix show following the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and LeGette has built an online platform of his own on TikTok showing his life as a cheerleader. But as the 2025 NFL season has started, male cheerleaders have been targeted and harassed on social media.

But despite that stigma, LeGette, Walsh and Fan are proud to do what they love, representing a team they love.

“Two or three years ago, we had an appearance at a military base, and obviously we’re there thanking all the all the servicemen and women,” LeGette said. “I went to thank a servicewoman, and she stopped me to thank me instead. She said, and I quote, ‘I want to thank you, because it’s people like you that make my boy want to dance too.’

“That resonated with me, because you don’t get that as often as you think, where people admit that stuff to you. I will never forget that moment, because it makes me realize that we are doing something bigger than what we think we are.”