The Buffalo Jills Lawsuit

The Buffalo Jills Lawsuit

This article relates to The Jills

The main character of Karen Parkman's novel The Jills is a cheerleader on the Buffalo Jills cheer squad, and the terrible working conditions she faces are based in reality. The Buffalo Jills were the Buffalo Bills' official cheerleaders from 1967 to 2014—when the team disbanded after a lawsuit by former members. The legal action came amid a wave of similar suits by NFL cheer squads seeking fair pay.

The Jills squad was owned by the Buffalo Bills organization until the mid-1980s, when a series of outside contractors took it over. The Jills briefly unionized in 1995, after which the management company shut down the squad. A new company restarted the Jills—without union protections—the next year.

The 2014 lawsuit named the Bills as well as these management companies and argued that they had violated labor laws and incorrectly classified the cheerleaders as "independent contractors." At the core of the suit was the fact that the team members were not actually paid anything for cheering at games. They made only a nominal amount for some, but not all, of their mandatory promotional appearances. One former Jill told the New York Times she made just $420 for working more than 800 hours. On top of that, they were charged $650 for their uniforms.

The Jills also faced rampant sexualization, and their physical appearance was highly scrutinized. New members of the squad were required to have a consultation with a plastic surgeon, who offered a discount to cheerleaders for procedures like breast augmentations. Cheerleaders also were required to attend events like a golf tournament for sponsors, who could bid on bikini-clad cheerleaders to ride in their cart. The women were encouraged to sit on the sponsors' laps.

In the wake of the lawsuit, the Jills' management company suspended all activities and disbanded the team. Frank Dolce, the lawyer for the cheerleaders who filed the suit, was not happy about the decision: "If they cease operations, they will blame the lawsuit for the destruction of the Jills, when that was not intended at all…We love the Jills. We do not love the travesty of its management that has occurred over the last few years.

In 2022, the lawsuit was finally settled for $7.5 million. The team was never reinstated, although an alumni group is involved in charitable activities.

Cheerleaders from the Buffalo Bills football team perform a routine for soldiers in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2007, courtesy of Defense Visual Information Distribution Service

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to The Jills. It first ran in the February 11, 2026 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.