In several of the 32 NFL teams, fans identify not only with the colors and the players, but there is also a group of beautiful cheerleaders, and in other cases there are the mascots.

These are the ones who bring energy and enthusiasm to every home game in the regular season and playoffs, connecting with the fans, especially the team’s younger fans.

Eric Aaberg, who for four seasons became “Rowdy“, the mascot of the Dallas Cowboys, revealed in an interview with PEOPLE everything behind the life of each of these characters, including several rules that everyone is unaware of.

In order to dress up as Rowdy, Aaberg first dressed up as another cowboy at the University of Texas at Dallas, and four years after working as Temoc the Comet, he went to work for the Cowboys.

“The stars just aligned for the role of Rowdy. They liked my energy and hired me,” he recalled.

Each of the mascots in the NFL have different characteristics, but in the end the intention is the same: to entertain fans, show the spirit of each team and promote pride throughout the franchise they represent.

But in order to play the role of Rowdy, Aaberg had to follow 10 rules to be the official Cowboys mascot.

1. There is no tryout process: “I over-prepared. I have a mascot resume, I have all these TikToks, you have to have some kind of personal brand or portfolio. I went viral and got millions of views,” recalled Aaberg, who went through an interview process with the Cowboys.
2. Pets must meet certain physical requirements: “Rowdy’s costume was very difficult because he had a taller cowboy hat, so it was very top heavy,” she explained. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, they’re about to throw my head off.'”.
3. Pets must have a lot of energy and personality: Being a pet not only requires energy, but also requires expressing a lot of personality from the moment the costume is put on until the moment it is taken off. “What makes me rowdy is beating my chest and showing the guns,” Aaberg noted of his Dallas Cowboys character.
4. Pets must know how to interact with all people: As someone who certainly has “main character energy,” interacting with fans and cheering on the crowd was very easy for Aaberg. “People are a little bit afraid of pets. Kids either love them or hate them, there’s really no middle ground and you really have to adapt to the audience,” he said.
5. Pets are forbidden to speak: Each mascot has its own rules regarding whether or not they are allowed to talk to fans, and what might have seemed daunting at first for Aaberg, who talks a lot, he assimilated and eventually fell in love with “that magical aspect” that it had and even compared it to the characters at Disney World.
6. Pets must be able to learn choreography: Certain pets need to know some dance steps for routines. “Some dances are also very agility intensive. Learning dances and choreography was a big part of the job, just being agile.”
7. Pets should be kept fit during the season: Wearing the heavy suit, running around the field, performing dance routines, or even catching a ball with one hand, involves good physical condition. “I would say I literally worked out five times a week during that season, and I was still dead. It really gets exhausting and it can definitely be a workout.”
8. Not all mascots have to keep their identity a secret: Each mascot has its own tradition when it comes to keeping the identity under the mask a secret, and Aaberg jokes that he went to “FBI agent” levels of secrecy in an attempt to avoid his identity being exposed.
9. Pets must also make appearances off the field: The mascots have several appearances to make outside of football games. “We had a mascot at the games and at a lot of corporate events. Rowdy has probably 150 events throughout the year that are just corporate-sponsored events. And I even did a commercial.”
10. Mascots are allowed to have other jobs: While each team has its own rules, Aaberg says his role as Rowdy was a part-time job. “You get paid about $10 an hour, and if it’s a game day, you get another $200. I also had a full-time job, so I was studying at college, had a full-time job and was also Rowdy.”