Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland had early-stage chronic traumatic encephalopathy when he died by suicide at age 24 in November, according to test results released by his family Tuesday through the Concussion & CTE Foundation.

“While this diagnosis does not change the tragedy of his passing, it provides important context about some of the struggles he may have been facing,” Kneeland’s family, including girlfriend Catalina Mancera, said in a statement.

CTE is a degenerative brain disease that has been found in people who experience repetitive head trauma and can be diagnosed only after death.

“We share this information to help people understand what NFL and other high contact sport athletes might be struggling with,” the family said. “Raising awareness is important to us. We continue to remember Marshawn with compassion for the person he was, rather than defining him by the final moments of his life. One Love.”

Frisco, Texas, police said Kneeland didn’t stop when state Department of Public Safety troopers tried to pull him over on Nov. 5 for a traffic violation. The 2024 second-round draft pick was pursued by authorities in his vehicle and then on foot before being found “deceased with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Frisco police said in a statement at the time.

Police-dispatch audio from the incident revealed that Kneeland had sent out a group text to say goodbye to his family.

Researchers at the Boston University CTE Center analyzed Kneeland’s brain tissue and determined that the athlete, who started playing tackle football at age 7, was in stage one of four of CTE.

“Unfortunately, I was not surprised to find CTE in the brain of Mr. Kneeland, because we have found this progressive brain disease in nearly half of the athletes we’ve studied who have died before the age of 30,” Dr. Ann McKee, the center’s director, said in a statement.

“Thanks to the generosity of our brain donor families, we now better understand the earliest stages of CTE, and it is bringing us closer than ever to diagnosing it during life. My team and I are fully dedicated to finding effective treatments and a cure for CTE.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders secured a significant boost to their salaries last season, but how much are they actually paid?

They still don’t get nearly as much as the Dallas Cowboys football players.

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are back on screens this week with a thrilling third instalment of Netflix’s hit docuseries.

Each seven-episode season of the show created by Greg Whiteley chronicles the latest NFL season as both rookie and seasoned cheerleaders compete for a spot on the 36-strong squad.

The newcomers are guided by director Kelli Finglass, head choreographer Judy Trammell and a number of cheerleading veterans who have performed for DCC for up to six years running.

After the first season premiered on Netflix back in 2024, many viewers were shocked by how little the cheerleaders were paid compared to NFL players.

This led to a push for higher pay, spearheaded by a number of veteran cheerleaders, that played a major role in America’s Sweethearts’ second season. But was the dispute successful? And how much are they paid now?

How much are the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders paid?

Despite the Dallas Cowboys being valued at over $10 billion (£7.45 billion) at the time, their cheerleaders reportedly only earned between $15 and $20 an hour (£11.18 – £14.90) for practice and $500 (£372) per game before the 2025 season.

This all added up to a salary of around $75,000 (£55,890) a year for cheerleaders who made the squad, according to reports from NBC Boston.

However, this itself was an increase from even lower pay just a few years previously, following historical dissatisfaction with the cheerleaders’ wages.

In 2018, former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Erica Wilkins successfully sued the organisation, leading to a 2019 settlement that bumped up wages from $8 (£5.96) an hour to $12 (£8.94) an hour. Game day pay was also increased from just $200 (£149) to $400 (£298).

During the 2024-25 season depicted in the Netflix documentary’s second outing, the DCC squad was still unhappy with their income as many of them would have to take on second jobs to make ends meet.

Plus, even the Dallas Cowboys’ newest players were earning around ten times more than veteran cheerleaders, with salaries for rookies starting at $750,000 (£558,900) and veterans at $850,000 (£633,460). Quarterback Dak Prescott is the team’s highest earner, with a current average salary of $60 million (£44.75 million) a year after signing a $240 million (£178.83 million) four-year contract.

Throughout the 2024-25 season, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders held meetings to discuss the issue of pay and even considered staging walkouts during games, though this ultimately didn’t happen.

Jada McLean, who played an instrumental role in securing the squad’s new pay deal, told TIME magazine: “We didn’t want to let people down who were so excited to see the cheerleaders after supporting us through the first season of our television show.”

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In the final episode of America’s Sweethearts season two, four-year veteran Megan McElaney announces the squad has secured a “life-changing” salary increase of a staggering 400 percent, with cheerleaders reportedly earning around $75 (£55.89) per hour. Veteran cheerleaders can now earn around $150,000 (£111,770) a year.

However, the cheerleaders’ exact salaries are not disclosed in the series and there has been some dispute over whether the 400 percent figure is accurate.

Veteran Reece Weaver disclosed on the Unplanned podcast last November that the increase was “more like 300 percent”, though maintained the team is still “so grateful with the outcome”.

“I really don’t know all the behind-the-scenes on how it all works out, but what I can say is that it has been such an improvement and a very big increase [over] what we have seen in the past,” she added.

Importantly, the increase does not include a flat fee for game appearances, which Weaver says is a “huge improvement”, and the job has remained part-time and does not include health insurance for cheerleaders.

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders season 3 is available on Netflix.