Life after the sideline for Jada McLean looks very different from a game check. The former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader has told LADbible that a single brand partnership can pay her anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000, a scale of money the squad never earned on the field.

Game-day pay for an NFL cheerleader runs to about $400 per game plus an hourly wage for rehearsals and appearances. One Maybelline post, by McLean’s own numbers, can be worth more than an entire season of games.

McLean, a five-year veteran of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, retired at the end of the 2024 NFL season after helping lead a push for better pay inside the organisation. She now works full-time as an influencer and brand ambassador.

“Life’s been good. I cannot complain. Now I’m just doing social media full-time, mainly brand deals,” she told LADbible.

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Her roster of ambassadorships includes Maybelline, Bumble, Dove and the cookware brand Caraway. On the fees themselves, she was unusually blunt.

“It all varies. But it can go anywhere from, like, $5,000 for me right now to, like, $50,000,” she said.

The Netflix effect

McLean became one of the breakout faces of season two of the Netflix docuseries America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, which premiered on 18 June 2025 and documented the squad’s pay fight with the organisation.

Season two ended with the reveal of a 400% pay raise for the squad, negotiated by a core of veterans that included McLean. Her verdict in the finale, quoted by Time, was short.

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“Our legacy will be the money,” she said.

Before the raise, McLean earned $15 an hour plus $500 per appearance based on her experience level. Afterwards, Time reported, veteran cheerleaders stood to make more than $75 an hour.

A squad turned into a brand

The show has turned the DCC into a crossover marketing property. Glossy reported in September 2026 that Sally Beauty had signed on as the official beauty retailer of the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Abercrombie & Fitch had expanded its existing deal with the squad, and Charlotte Tilbury had come on board as official beauty partner for game-day routines.

Individual cheerleaders have been collecting their own deals in parallel. On the show, long-time choreographer Judy Trammell has described the shift.

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“The girls are now becoming influencers… they’re becoming so successful with it, they’re not having to kill themselves with a 9-to-5 job,” she said.

McLean has leaned into that pivot since retiring. She has posted that she is “changing my career from dancer to model” and has made public appearances away from the field, including presenting at the Academy of Country Music Awards in May 2025, according to Today.com.

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