The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Reality Show Ends Its Run on CMT
‘Making the Team’ was the cable channel’s longest-running reality program. After sixteen seasons, why did it decide to pull the plug?
Sports
February 18, 2022
The Lost Soul of the Dallas Cowboys
The drama that’s swept up Jerry Jones’s former right-hand man says a lot about the distorted values of America’s Team.
America's Girls
January 25, 2022
The Ten Best Moments From Our Podcast ‘America’s Girls’
Host Sarah Hepola counts down her favorite moments from our series on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
America's Girls
January 18, 2022
America’s Girls, Episode 8: Making the Dream
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have navigated scandals and cultural shifts in the last few years. What is their future in this new world?
America's Girls
January 13, 2022
Inside the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ Decades-long Fight for Fair Pay
Dana Presley Killmer joined the squad at the peak of its popularity, but the $15 game rate hadn't changed, and wouldn't for many years.
America's Girls
January 11, 2022
America’s Girls, Episode 7: All-American Sexy Girls
From honey shots to swimsuit calendars, sex has long been part of the cheerleaders’ brand. But is the provocative tease a relic of another era?
America's Girls
January 4, 2022
America’s Girls, Episode 6: The Perfect Look
It’s not just about being the right weight. It’s about having the right hair, the right skin, the right boobs, the right legs. Only a very particular kind of beautiful woman gets to wear that uniform.
America's Girls
December 31, 2021
The Photo the Dallas Cowboys Never Wanted the Public to See
One former Cowboys cheerleader tells the story behind her epic encounter with Danny White, in a picture that was quashed for 25 years.
America's Girls
December 28, 2021
America’s Girls, Episode 5: The Rules
Being a Cowboys cheerleader has always meant living by a long list of rules. But do those rules help protect the cheerleaders or control them?
America's Girls
December 23, 2021
The Women Who Created the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
A dynamic professor, a feisty seamstress, a firebrand dancer, and the other underappreciated architects of the phenomenon that transformed the NFL.
America's Girls
December 21, 2021
America’s Girls, Episode 4: The Uniform
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders uniform is iconic, a symbol of Texas culture for half a century. But its origin story remains remarkably unsettled.
America's Girls
December 17, 2021
The Cowboys Cheerleader With the Pigtails Shaves Her Head
Tami Barber became a sweetheart of the seventies-era cheerleaders. But she also had—and still has—a rebel streak.
America's Girls
December 15, 2021
In Search of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Who Posed for Playboy
They were at the center of a scandal that rocked the NFL. More than forty years later, would they finally tell their side?
America's Girls
December 14, 2021
America’s Girls, Episode 3: Naked Ambition
A group of former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders pose topless in Playboy, and the Cowboys go to court to protect their brand.
America's Girls
December 9, 2021
Dancing With the Poster Girl of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ Golden Era
Shannon Baker Werthmann got more fan mail than any woman on the seventies squad. We talk sexiness, fair pay, encounters with Roger Staubach, and getting fired by Kelli Finglass.
America's Girls
December 8, 2021
Meet the First Woman to Wear the Cowboys Cheerleaders Uniform
Vonciel Baker still holds the record for most years on the squad.
America's Girls
December 7, 2021
America’s Girls, Episode 2: All That Glitters
The cheerleaders enjoy the glamour of sudden fame, while grappling with low pay and the dangers that celebrity brings.
America's Girls
December 7, 2021
America’s Girls, Episode 1: The Rise to Fame
The modern Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders launch in 1972 and rocket to national fame.
America's Girls
November 30, 2021
Announcing Our New Podcast, ‘America’s Girls’
Inside the wild, glamorous, and complicated saga of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, an institution that changed sports, entertainment, and countless childhoods of boys and girls like me.
Being Texan
July 20, 2021
In Mobile City, Everybody Knows Your Name
Mobile City was incorporated in the early nineties to facilitate alcohol sales in a dry county. Now residents—especially its devoted mayor—fear for the fate of their accidental utopia.
Books
July 2, 2020
A Guide to Living Decadently Without Alcohol
In their new book, ‘The Sober Lush,' Austin writers Amanda Eyre Ward and Jardine Libaire offer a booze-free road map to a rich, full lifestyle.
Being Texan
June 18, 2020
What the Pandemic Taught Me About Old-Fashioned Romance
“Six feet away” can be very, very sexy.
Health
May 18, 2020
How the Pandemic Turned Brené Brown Into America’s Therapist
But for heaven’s sake, the best-selling author, unapologetic cusser, and fifth-generation Texan would rather not be called that.
News & Politics
January 17, 2018
How Whitney Wolfe Herd Changed the Dating Game
Update: Hours after this story was published, the Dallas Cowboys announced that Making the Team would not be returning to CMT and that the show looks forward “to continuing the exclusive journey with ‘America’s Sweethearts’ on a new platform,” according to a press release.“We could never have anticipated the outpouring
The Culture
October 29, 2015
The Alcohol Blackout
In the war against campus sexual assault, why are we not talking about drinking?
Sports
January 24, 2013
In Praise of My Sports Town
How I’m learning to love the Cowboys. And the Mavericks. And the Rangers. And the Stars. And . . .