When you hear the word Cheerleader what do you think? Do you think tumbling, stunting, synchronized routines with signs and poms, and individuals
getting the crowd pumped up? That’s what Tiffany from the Bengals thought too when she walked into her first prep class for the Cincinnati Bengals Cheerleading Team. She soon learned that’s not what cheerleading in the NFL was all about, but found she enjoyed all the perks of a NFL Cheerleader, such as: Leadership opportunities, going to ProBowl and traveling to give back to service men and women on military tours.
Thousands of woman tryout to be a NFL Cheerleader every year and think they are walking into a completely different world than anticipated. Young ladies and boys begin cheering for PeeWee football teams all the way through college teams and others join competitive cheer teams. Tiffany cheered most of her life and when her friend presented the idea of trying out for the Bengals Cheerleading Squad, she figured she would take the challenge on, and since her parents had always been season ticket holders for the Bengals, it seemed to be a perfect fit.
Tiffany and her friend walked into their first Bengals Cheer prep class and were taught a dance with pirouettes (turns) and switch leaps (different dance techniques). Tiffany knew she had a long road ahead of her because she was used to tumbling and yelling chants, not stylized routines. Tiffany was ready to push through and work for what she wanted. She immediately started working with an alumni cheerleader to learn anything and everything she could about dance technique and performance. Tiffany was always up for a good challenge and she was ready to overcome what seemed impossible to make the Bengals Cheerleading team.
After many prep classes Tiffany succeeded in her task and became a Cincinnati Bengals Cheerleader on her first year of trying out, which is almost unheard of. Young women tryout for years and years to become an NFL cheerleader, learning the style, the look and the personality takes time and Tiffany was able to quickly conquer the task at hand. Tiffany has now been cheering for seven years and says “my best season was the year I was selected to be a side captain and selected to go to ProBowl. I worked so hard, first to be on the team and second to be seen as an individual, to stand out from my amazing team mates. Our coaches and directors pick side captains on leadership, showmanship, and glamour. To prove to them that I could be a leader was huge to me. I have always been the quiet one and I came out of my bubble a few years after being on the team. I knew I had to stand out and demonstrate that I could lead my peers to illustrate to my coaches I had the abilities they were looking for. In order to become captain I had to stand up in front of the team and teach a performance. We don’t have a choreographer, so the purpose of this part of the tryout is to make sure you have the ability to prepare a dance and then work through the chaos to teach your team mates the routine. In the end, four side captains are chosen and each of the captains lead seven cheerleaders in each game throughout the season. To be chosen was such an accomplishment to me and then to top it off in the same year I was chosen by my peers to be the representative for the Bengals Cheerleaders to cheer at ProBowl!”
Throughout Tiffany’s career as a Bengals cheerleader she has also had the opportunity to give back to the service men and women through traveling 
with military tours. Tiffany has participated in three military tours visiting Guam, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, and her favorite Egypt. Tiffany says, “The tours were a real life changer for me.” It was one of the most stressful experiences she has had, but well worth it. They spent all day traveling and then rocked out a two hour show just to repeat and do it all again the next day. It was a continuous cycle day in and day out, but an experience that Tiffany says, “made me grow up and realize I had to figure out how to do things on my own. It taught me to respect the soldiers and everything they do for our country”. Being able to travel at such a young age opened Tiffany’s eyes to know what was going on in the world around her. On one of the tours the cheerleaders stayed at Sadam’s Palace in downtown Bagdad where the girls would hear birdies eye bombs go off. At one point eleven people were killed, less than a mile away from where they were staying. There were highlights though; Egypt – which was the biggest base they visited – had the Red Sea as the background to where they were dancing. The girls were able to ride camels and see the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
Life is an adventure experienced in stages. Tiffany never expected cheering in the NFL to be what it is, but since becoming one she has grown into the woman she is today with stories and memories that will stay with her forever. She is now dancing with style next to all of her fabulous sisters on the Cincinnati Bengals team, has been a line captain for her team, cheered in Hawaii at the ProBowl, and traveled overseas to give back to our service men and women.
