Some days it really does feel the name on everybody’s lips is gonna be Reece Weaver and her husband Will Allman.
So, the retired Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and her groom of two-plus years have mapped out a strategy for dealing with online commentary and all that jazz.
“Pressure is a privilege,” Weaver acknowledged in an exclusive interview with E! News, “and we know that there’s a lot of people that have eyes on us in our marriage, which is a really weird concept. But we also know that there’s a responsibility within that.”
While the University of Alabama alumni have “established some boundaries” regarding what they share with her 1.4 million Instagram followers, they’ve happily shown off their new Tuscaloosa digs and the routines they’ve established since decamping to New York City for Weaver’s six-week run as Roxie Hart in Chicago.
Still, she explained, “I think one of the biggest things we’ve learned is just how to have thick skin and how we can’t put our worth or our identity in someone else’s opinion, even if it’s positive. Because that can be a trap really quickly, too.”
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Celebrities Who Made Their Broadway Debut
Because, yes, the 25-year-old has certainly become one of America’s Sweethearts since making her debut on the Netflix docuseries in 2024. But she’s doing her best not to put too much stock in the fans who’ve been cheering her on.
“Even though we love, as human beings, to have positive feedback and positive things being said about us, we also know that at the end of the day, we’re not to put our worth in anyone’s opinions,” Weaver explained. “And I think that has really helped us move along. When there are outside opinions, whether they’re negative or positive, they don’t interfere with our marriage.”
Outside of the old razzle dazzle, all she and Allman, 26, really care about is love.
“It’s our goal now, just to always support each other, make sure that we’re doing okay, and then also just making sure that we’re having fun at the end of the day,” Weaver explained of their rock-solid relationship. “And that we know that we’re each other’s encouragers.”
And no one has been cheering harder for Weaver as she rouged her knees and pulled her stockings down, kicking off her Broadway debut Sept. 7.
“Three years ago, we had to kind of face a new reality and had to learn how to adapt to it,” she explained of suddenly putting their relationship on display. “And the blessing is, is that we’ve had each other throughout this entire process.”
So, when she was presented with the opportunity to live out her Broadway dreams, “it was just another one of those things,” noted Weaver. “It was like, ‘OK, we’re going to do this together.'”
Between handling dinners and driving their pup Ruby the 16 hours from Alabama to NYC, “He’s held my hand throughout this entire process, and is truly my biggest cheerleader, advocate, supporter, encourager,” raved Weaver. “I think that he would not have pegged his life to look like this at all, or even his spouse’s.”
And, yet, she continued, “He’s just along for the ride and is so excited about everything that’s come our way because it’s not necessarily even my dream. Once you’re married, it’s a lifestyle. It’s both of us, and so he’s really excited and super proud.”
Admittedly, Weaver can struggle to relate to Roxie’s mindset. “Murdering is not necessarily in my wheelhouse,” she joked. So, returning home to a man who certainly doesn’t have it coming is a relief.
“I couldn’t do this without him,” she noted of having “someone who has seen you at your best, at your worst, and know that you can be 100 percent completely yourself around that person, and they’re just going to be there to listen and be a shoulder to lean on.”
So, yes, she’s also thought about what it will look like when they expand their squad.
When drawing up a game plan for the next 10 years, Weaver hopes it will involve enough land to live out her dream of having a chicken coop and some Highland cows. And in addition to penning a second book—This Is Where You Bloom comes out in May—added Weaver, “I think by then we would probably start our family.”
But first, she joked, “I think I’m gonna rot on the couch for about a month or two and really figure out what life looks like. Enjoy our new home, enjoy the holidays, and enjoy a Thanksgiving because we actually haven’t been able to have a normal Thanksgiving in a few years.”
That’s the life of a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, babe. If you wanna know more, we’re serving up some secrets below.
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A doctor told Caroline she needed surgery following four seasons of jump-splitting her joints into a permanently injured state, as she shared on the show, “but a hip surgery like that is a good three to six months recovery. I was like, ‘I really want to do one more year of cheerleading.’ I just wanted to push through.”
“You would think hip surgery would be a little worse,” Caroline said. “But the foot has so many nerves in it. So from the [end-of-season] banquet until now I’ve just been recovering a lot, which has been a bit of a wake-up call.”
Her chiropractic sports practitioner Dr. Kristina Myles noted in a post showing Salter getting worked on, “our focus is primarily correcting facial layers that can cause pain, stiffness, or loss of range of motion when injured or overworked.”
ESPN reported in 2017 that NFL team cheerleaders made roughly $75 to $150 per game, an eye-opening moment for fans who assumed those glamorous performers were making bank. Or at least a living wage.
As seen in the first season of America’s Sweethearts, DCC alum Kelcey Wetterberg is a pediatric registered nurse, while then-newcomer Reece Allman (née Weaver), who returned for the 2024 season, worked at a Dallas florist to supplement her earnings from cheerleading.
According to the Dallas Morning News, cheerleader pay has since risen to closer to $400 per game, plus hourly wages for all the time spent preparing for games and making appearances.
Still, DCC alum Kat Puryear said on the Netflix show, “I would say I’m making, like, a substitute teacher [salary]…I would say I’m making, like, Chick-fil-A worker that works full-time” money.
In addition to her full-time job as a marketing/recruiting coordinator at Bluecrest Financial Alliances, per LinkedIn, she had added makeup artist for The Styling Stewardess to her resume—and when all that work is done, it’s off to AT&T Stadium for evening practice, which ends at 11 p.m.
As Salter put it to E! News, “DCC has taught a lot of us about time management. We’ve got to make sure that we have time for not only our jobs and DCC, but also ourselves.”
“Trying to make that uniform fit and and have the most beautiful lines, we don’t talk about weight,” DCC director since 1991 Kelli Finglass told E! News. “The girls are all very good with their own nutrition, their own personal workouts. We have a gym adjacent to our dance studio,” plus nutritionists and mental health experts available for consultation.
The women are free to focus on their own personal regimens, “and we try to provide resources and educate them,” Finglass said. “We leave it at that. And I think we’re better for that.”
The DCC audition FAQ section on their website advises, “You should look well-proportioned in dancewear. We DO NOT have specific height and weight requirements.”
“I think everything around the cheerleaders has changed,” Finglass told the New York Times. “And they’re adapting to many things like social media and visibility. But at the core, they are world-class dancers, and a big part of what they do requires a servant’s heart. That has been the case throughout our entire history.”
“They go to dinners with high-ranking military officials,” Finglass explained to the Times, “so they are put in situations that they may not have been exposed to yet as an 18- or 19-year-old from a small town.”
And since people get so excited to see the DCC all around the world, she continued, “I love them learning all the different facets and being polished and poised and prepared. All I’m trying to do is give them every tool possible, so they can be confident.”
Among the aesthetic rules: No red lips and no red nails. Plus, hair must always be worn down, and Dallas’ Tangerine Salon has been keeping the ladies’ locks bouncy for years.
Also, if you have a tattoo, that’s fine—but it has to be completely masked with makeup and bronzer for games.
She lamented that their longrunning CMT reality show Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, which ended in 2022 after 16 seasons, “didn’t show the things we do the rest of the year,” Trammell told Entertainment Tonight. “The USO tours, the veterans hospital, the children’s hospital visits. We do so much more than has ever been seen.”
Because not all that unlike getting out of the military, when someone retires from cheerleading it’s admittedly “a big lifestyle change to go from seeing your teammates every night at rehearsals to not,” the DCC director explained. “That’s why we try to supplement that immediately with alumni activities. Because it is sad for all of us.”
Noting that the ladies go on to share major milestones—such as weddings, and then their kids’ weddings—for years after their cheering days are done, Finglass added, “I feel like a school teacher, and when your students graduate, you’re always excited for the new freshman class. But of course you have emotions, and you have relationships that you know are not going to be seen or felt on a daily basis.”
