This past season, Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies gained national attention for becoming the first male cheerleaders to join an NFL team when they the Los Angeles Rams squad.
That was all the inspiration needed for Drill Dallahi and Steven Sonntag to both tryout for the New England Patriots cheerleading squad.
The two men were selected to be on the squad for the upcoming season which will be for the first time in decades for the Patriots.
NBC Boston has the story:
“Walking (into tryouts), I knew people were going to look at me — one, because I am over 6 feet tall, and two, because I am a male,” said 23-year-old Drill Dallahi of Londonderry, New Hampshire.
Months before his audition in March, Dallahi went to the squad’s optional workshop and realized he wasn’t alone.
He met Steven Sonntag.
“I attended that workshop and walked in and heard there was another boy, and so I was immediately looking around trying to find him,” said Sonntag, 22, of Colchester, Vermont.
They didn’t know each other until they realized they had the same dream.
“We didn’t really know the criteria for male cheerleaders auditioning for the New England Patriots, so we kind of created that together in texting back and forth,” said Sonntag.”
They were the only men that auditioned, both making the team, becoming the Patriots’ first male cheerleaders since the early 1980s.
“I was excited,” said Tracy Sormanti, the Patriots’ director of cheerleading, when asked about first seeing the two at tryouts. “Change is good.”
For decades, Sormanti, who was once a cheerleader herself, has led the squad.
“They were not selected because they were the first men to try out,” said said. “They were selected because they actually had the talent.”
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Cheers to the Patriots.
You can watch the video here.
