Season 1 isn’t really about football. It’s about what happens when a girl enters a space designed by and for boys—and how that space tries to digest her. Bella Dawson (Brec Bassinger) is the archetypal Nickelodeon protagonist: optimistic, resilient, and slightly oblivious. But her specific trait—being a cheerleader who loves football strategy—creates a fascinating tension. The show could have easily made her a tomboy who rejects femininity to fit in. Instead, it doubles down.
The season finale, "Kickoff," doesn’t end with a championship. It ends with Bella throwing the game-winning pass, then walking off the field arm-in-arm with Pepper, still wearing her cheerleading bow in her helmet. It’s a small, almost corny image. But it’s also a thesis statement: Bella and The Bulldogs - Season 1
Pepper is the head cheerleader and Bella’s best friend. She is also the gatekeeper of their shared social identity. When Bella trades her pom-poms for shoulder pads, Pepper feels betrayed—not because she’s cruel, but because she’s afraid. In the world of the show, cheerleading is the only legitimate source of female power. Pepper has trained her whole life to lead that squad. And now her co-captain has found a better kind of power: the kind with a scoreboard. Season 1 isn’t really about football
Bella loves her pom-poms. She loves her best friends, the cheerleaders (Pepper and Sophie). She does not want to abandon her feminine identity to succeed in a masculine arena. This is the show’s first radical move. In most sports narratives, the female athlete must adopt male-coded traits (aggression, stoicism, emotional suppression) to be taken seriously. Bella refuses. But her specific trait—being a cheerleader who loves