The NFL is making history this season and chances are you’ll appreciate the reason why, even if you’re not a football fan.
For the first time ever, the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints will have male dancers joining the cheerleaders on the sidelines.
Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies found out they made the Rams squad in March.
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The fact that Peron and Jinnies made the cut inspired 25-year-old Jesse Hernandez to try out for the New Orleans Saints’Â Saintsations cheerleading team. He’s the first ever male dancer to join the squad.
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He told CNN affiliate KATC that his mom persuaded him to try out. “She told me it was my time to shine,” he said in a video posted before his final audition. “The process has been great, everyone has been really nice to me and I can’t wait to see where this goes.”
But Hernandez says his road to the tryouts wasn’t easy. A dancer his whole life, he told WDSU News back in April that it was “very difficult” growing up being a male dancer, “But I never gave it up because it’s something that I love to do and I wanted to pursue it when I got out of high school. There was always just little negative things here and there, and of course it kind of hits the ego”.
Said Hernandez, “Of course, there will be some people that may not agree with me being in that dome, but if that happens, I’m there and I’ll smile and wave and live life.”