First male NFL cheerleader comments on Vikings controversy

One of the NFL's first male cheerleaders has no time for recent critics of the Minnesota Vikings' cheerleading squad.

Earlier this year, conservatives were freaking out over two male dancers, Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn, joining the Vikings cheerleading squad.

"Imagine you buy front row season football tickets and when you sit down there's some man girating [sic] right in front of you," InfoWars host Owen Shroyer said on X.

"I just threw up in my mouth," said another commentator.

Now, one of the NFL's first two male cheerleaders, Napoleon Jinnies, has spoken out.

"I'm rolling my eyes," Jinnies tells People. "They're not saying anything new."

Jinnies made history when he and Quinton Peron became the first male cheerleaders in NFL history when they joined the Los Angeles Rams cheer squad in 2018.

Jinnies says that during that first year, he would hear criticisms, but by that point in his life, he could block them out.

"The comments from people who were from my childhood to preteen to college were the exact same comments from these random adults," Jinnies says. "And they're not saying anything about what I'm putting out as an artist."

He adds that "as outrageous as the haters were, the support was even louder."

Now, Jinnies says he's proud to see these new male cheerleaders carrying on his legacy and rising above the hate they are receiving.

"Maybe I could see their point if they were bad cheerleaders," he says. "But they're beat-for-beat, step-for-step killing it with the girls. I'm looking at them like a dance judge, like, 'Well, they shine. Sorry if that ruffles your feathers.'"