Sideline Legends In Their Own Words
For 6 decades, men and women have cheered for the National Football League. In this podcast, you will meet them, hear their stories, and find out what it's like to be a National Football Pro Cheerleader.
Sideline Legends In Their Own Words
Part 2 with Shannon Baker Werthmann. But we never got caught!
When Shannon Baker-Werthmann and I chuckle about the mischievous escapade in our cheerleader uniforms, you can almost hear the fizz of the beers we weren't supposed to buy. Our episode is like unwrapping a treasured scrapbook, page by vibrant page, revealing a friendship that's weathered storms like my fight with cancer and shared loss, while never losing its spark. Shannon's resilience and support through my chemotherapy, her relentless research, and the guidance she offered is just one chapter in our enduring narrative. Our laughter is a testament to the joy and rebellion that define our sisterhood, a bond that's as solid as the pompoms we once waved under those bright stadium lights.
Journey with us through tales of camaraderie and NFL cheerleading life that Shannon and I have lived and loved. It's not often you find a sisterhood so strong it can navigate both life's toughest moments and its most joyous. Our Sideline Legends community celebrates that strength, and we're inviting you to be a part of it. Connect with us, and discover more untold anecdotes that will warm your heart, make you laugh, and maybe even inspire a bit of your own mischievous spirit. Subscribe, share, and bring your own stories to keep the spirit of our conversation alive and kicking.
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Hi and welcome to another episode of Sideline Legends, in their own words. I'm Tammy, your host, and you are in for a great time. This week I sat down with Shannon Baker-Worthman. Shannon is a legend. For four years, shannon performed at Texas Stadium and around the world as one of the most talented and iconic cheerleaders of all time. Following her cheer years, shannon was handpicked by the infamous Texie Waterman to be the first cheerleader to become their choreographer. Shannon was on posters, a favorite of the photographers on game day, for the television audience, and I humbly and proudly call her my best friend and sister.
Speaker 1:Shannon and I share our time together, our shenanigans and our bond that has grown and continued for the past 45 years. I can't imagine what my life would have been like without her in it. We had so much fun that I decided to make her interview into two parts. This is part two of Shannon and I. I know you're going to be dazzled and amazed by this woman who has accomplished so much and continues to be one of the bravest, strongest and interesting women who has ever worn the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders uniform. We left off last episode with the event that bonded us closer, the passing of Dr Raker, and now.
Speaker 1:I reached out to Shannon when I was diagnosed with cancer. This time we're also going to tell a couple of secrets. But it's okay, let's pick up where we left off last time how Shannon has gotten me through all the red tape of chemotherapy what's that? And she still does it. I get a new chemo, I get a new diagnosis and it's like okay, shannon, here's what I heard, and she just takes her notes. Shannon is student of the world, student, student, student, and she takes her notes, she researches, she finds out from Chandler, her son, and then she calls and she puts it in, she splains it, she chemo splains and I go okay, good, okay, okay. I've been to chemo school three times. Couldn't tell you what they said because Chandler and Shannon didn't tell me.
Speaker 2:And as you go through this journey, it's looking very bright, and so I am here to share all that joy as well.
Speaker 1:I know we're a little standoffish about it, as we probably will be but, but you know, we've shared a lot of joy as well, oh and we have, and, and those of you that got to see Craigig walk through, craig has been on this journey with shannon since what high school?
Speaker 2:we started boyfriend and girlfriend at 15 yes, yes.
Speaker 1:and so then, shannon and my husband and I and craig sorry, see, we always put Craig at the end. Craig, shannon, dave and I, we became, you know, that couple. We did everything. We're in each other's weddings and I'll never forget the time we all went to a Mexican restaurant and Craig got the sweetest person ever. Patience of Job.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And he looks at Shannon and he says honey, would you pass the sugar? And we have laughed about that for 40 some years. Sugar, can you pass the honey? No, honey, pass the sugar. I mean, these are things that you very, very rarely get in. Just a girlfriend, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You got the whole package.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's the word besides BFF, girlfriend, sisterhood Shannon and I have that and we're complete opposites. Oh, it was yin and yang, oh my God. And Shannon tells the story inaccurately. Do not that I took her to the dark side, she did.
Speaker 2:She did so. Here I am in my baby blue car, powder blue car, driving like my grandmother, and here is Tammy in her black Camaro, driving like a bat out of hell, and I'm holding on tight as she takes me to the dark side. Yes, and I was so scared always that we were going to get in trouble, in trouble.
Speaker 1:And we happened to be in our uniforms this one time.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we stopped. There are a couple of interesting. There's a 7-Eleven and a cleaners across the street and I'll get there. But at 7-eleven we go in and in our uniforms and I'm thinking, okay, somebody's I mean we were so brainwashed oh, somebody's taking a picture of everything you do. But you know right all of that. So I am scared to death. I'm in there and I don't know if I have my curlers in my hair or not, but I'm oh.
Speaker 1:No, those, those days were over. It was restricted.
Speaker 2:Now yeah, so we go in there and tammy wants what is it? You bought Beer, Beer, yeah, and legs. Well, she said, if we get in trouble, we were in here buying a legitimate DCC product that we're supposed to wear. So we had the egg. But we had yeah, and you know I went to get another egg as a prop with this yeah, do they not make the?
Speaker 1:I don't think so. No, no, those, yeah, those eggs were. You know, that was like the first kiosk, yeah, rounded kiosk of eggs yeah and and we didn't just go in. Well, of course, because you know, that's why we were there.
Speaker 2:And then she gets in the car with her beer. You know that's good.
Speaker 1:Once I get to leave it at 7-Eleven.
Speaker 2:That wouldn't make sense either. No, no.
Speaker 1:It's all logic.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we get in the car and Northwest Highway is this big crowded street and she takes off and we like, go from zero to 80. And I mean I am white knuckling it, I am so scared. But then the joy starts coming in. Yes, I feel like that, as long as I'm with her and not doing it on my own, that it will be okay, because I have someone to blame and they would always know that you were the rebel of the two of us.
Speaker 1:And I always had the person who did everything right, so they could never assume that it was that bad. There you go, because you would be able to talk them out of whatever trouble we had. I would try my best, but we never got caught. And we never got caught. And here's the one thing that Shannon did not invite me to. That I've always regretted.
Speaker 2:It was probably your idea forming in the back of my head, though.
Speaker 1:Well, okay, so it was a game day, right it?
Speaker 2:was the night very late at night before the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, and Shannon's uniform, of course, was at the cleaners.
Speaker 2:And we weren't supposed to ever take him to the cleaners because someone might take a picture, yep, um, or steal it or whatever. But you know, you were where, you were kind of rubbing off on me. So I take my um uniform to the cleaner and Craig's up. He's gonna laugh. Everybody knows the cleaner. So this is the cleaner across from the 7-eleven. The cleaner has um has closed and me, my mom, craig and my dad went down to break in to sit clear, to get the uniform out.
Speaker 2:So here's what happens my mom and I, my mom's, over across the street by the 7-Eleven as a lookout. You know, as we couldn't be together, we had to go to our corner. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And so I was by the car doing the. If we need to get away, come on, let's get in the car. My Craig, did my dad push you up? He had to pick me up. I couldn't get out. Oh okay, so my dad and Craig get up on the roof of the cleaners. They go down. So my dad's up on the roof and my mom's going. You're a doctor, do you know what's going to happen? So my dad is laughing, having fun. This is all great. He lowers Craig down into the cleaner.
Speaker 1:Right, correct.
Speaker 2:The window.
Speaker 1:Wasn't it a tiny window.
Speaker 2:What was that, craig? I thought it was a tiny window, a vent or a. A vent, a vent, tiny event or event on the roof. So he's lowering down.
Speaker 2:And I'm seeing this. He's not a small man, he's a big guy, six foot three and he's lowered down and he's going through all of the um, cleaner bags, cleaner bags trying to find it. And so he does find it and all the pieces were there, you know. And so he's trying to get back up to the roof. He can't so and I'm sure I was like a deer in the headlights being scared, as usual, gonna get in trouble. So my dad lifts him up onto the roof. So then they come down, we get in the car, everything's cool. I had the uniform for the game the next day. My mom on Monday went into the cleaners and said we picked up my Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader daughter's uniform on Friday and I forgot to to pay for it. Let me write you a check. So she writes the check and no one ever knew.
Speaker 1:No one ever knew, and I don't even know how many people you told you. Well, yeah, and all I could say was I can't believe you didn't call me you know how much easier it would have been to lower you down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, mm-hmm, I guess you back that would have been very easy yeah, we could have had a rope around me, but see, these are the things that I want everyone to know that we aren't little barbie dolls. We work very hard. We're talented women, talented men. We work very hard, but we have a ball and we have stories and there will never be well. First of all, they could never do that.
Speaker 2:Now, there's too many cameras true, but we were told back in the day that there were spies all around us.
Speaker 1:There were spies, yeah, and we believed it. We believed it. Yeah, you, I kind of got caught by some spies, but that's another story, another time. And then, shannon, I want to wrap it up, but we want to tell you about the 36 most beautiful girls in Texas. Our first televised special. Hollywood came to Dallas and they filmed us. Oh wait, we got two stories and then we'll wrap it up. Hollywood came to Dallas and they filmed us for what I don't know, a week, maybe, I don't even remember. Yeah, and we went to Six Flags for one of the segments. And, and what fun it is to be the only people at an amusement park riding the rides over and, over, and over again, until you think I will never step foot in Six Flags again.
Speaker 2:We were on that shockwave? Yes, I think it was the shockwave, and it has the loop-de-loops Yep, and he kept saying I need another take, I need another take.
Speaker 1:The cart would come back in and we'd be like, can we get out? Nope, nope, we're going again. I know and remember, girls, you're having fun. Raise your arms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I had enough fun that day, I had plenty of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had tons of fun that day. And then we have one other one that really comes to mind, and, and we have so many stories, but the ones that I think are unique is because, um, it was a time when we were getting our notoriety and the fame and we were asked to go to las Vegas to do the CBS challenge of the sexes. Phyllis George was our coach and we competed against the temptations at Caesar's Palace and I quick sidebar our rooms at Caesar's had round beds with velvet bedspreads and mirrors On the ceiling.
Speaker 1:We're sweet little girls from Texas. Why would anybody want to look at that? Little girls from Texas, why would anybody want to look at that? But one of the fun things we talked about the other night is who was the coach for the Temptations?
Speaker 2:Bill Cosby, that's right.
Speaker 1:We none of us were drunk. Nothing happened to any of us.
Speaker 2:Little did we know he was very, very nice, very nice, very fun.
Speaker 1:The temptations were great. We ran an obstacle course in our little outfits that were made with our shiny leg pantyhose with our compression shiny, shimmery compression they did.
Speaker 2:Let us wear like little white kids instead of our vinyl did, we did, we got.
Speaker 1:We got shoes, we got a little top. Phyllis george was awesome. I always wanted to be phyllis joy I did too oh my gosh, she was the best some of you who might remember. You know, phyllis George was the first woman to be on what was it NFL Today? Or yeah, she was a woman that got to do that and it was an amazing time and I believe it was my first trip to Vegas, I think.
Speaker 2:I think it might have been. We had been my first. Were you there when we went to? Texi was our chaperone? Oh, we went to. I watched Wayne Newton. Wayne Newton Did you and he's there. Yeah, yeah, we're no longer on the field, he's still working.
Speaker 1:I know Well, we did the Jerry Lewis telethon, that's right. Oh my God, we got to see Paul Newman. Yes, johnny Carson, dionne Warwick, johnny Carson, dionne Warwick. It was our Starstruck, oh my.
Speaker 2:There were no words that we were included on the same stage as these.
Speaker 1:I mean Hollywood superstars. These were movie stars. And here we came with our pom-poms that were as big as the front seat of your car. You could actually had there been a carpool lane back then. You could have put a hat on our pom-poms and it fit the seat. You would have gotten away that you had a passenger. And I'm as I um, as I edit this and put things in, I'm gonna put in pictures of our palms. I mean, I don't think any. In fact, I've heard the current girls don't believe about our palms. Oh yeah, they don't believe their stories can.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they don't believe their stories can't be as great as ours.
Speaker 1:No, no, they have these little tiny pom-poms.
Speaker 2:Under the roof Just putting it out there again.
Speaker 1:Under the air-conditioned roof. But, Shannon, you are by far one of the most important people in my world. You always have been and you always will be, and this is one of the things that I want everyone to remember as we go through all of these interviews with all of these cheerleaders this is real. This is real. We're not making anything up. This is real and this is what it's like to be a National Football Cheerleader alumni. Thank you, Shannon.
Speaker 2:Thank you, tammy, I love you.
Speaker 1:I love you too. Bye, bye, bye. Thank you for tuning in this week. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane for us and I hope you got an insight what kind of friendships are made in the lives of the NFL cheerleaders. Thank you, shannon, for being my guest and allowing me to share just a bit of our story. I hope y'all enjoyed it and want to hear more from the men and women of the NFL. There are more cheerleaders from around the US, more stories and more secrets if you turn into Sideline Legends, subscribe, share and reach out. If you have any questions, sidelinelegends at gmailcom. You can also join the Facebook group. I'm getting pictures up and making sure you meet all the men and women I call legends. Talk to you soon. You're my people.