>> tonight, taking on the team. >> the harassment. the bullying. we were being called jelly belly, chunky cheeks. >> former nfl cheerleaders suing the houston texans for harassment. one woman saying she was groped by a fan. >> a man reaches over and runs his hand from my boot heel to the center of my crotch and grabs. >> making minimum wage, allegedly working overtime for nothing. why they say it's time for an nfl rule change. plus survival school. >> oh, man, i'm not looking forward to crickets. >> crunchy. >> swimming through snake pits. running through a field of burning cars. and paying for the pain. >> you're dead!

>> edadventurer bear gryllsyllss putting regular people up to the challenge. >> until you're squeezed you don't see what people are made of. >> how far would you go to be prepared? first the "nightline 5." breathe freely fast with vicks sinex. >> my congestion's gone. i can breathe again! oh, i can breathe again! oh. >> vick's sinex, breathe on. ♪

good evening. thanks for joining us. nfl cheerleaders say they're thrilled just to make the squad. it's part of why this group of women say they've been taken advantage of for years. some former houston texans cheerleaders are banding together to sue the team. alleging a culture of harassment and claiming they were paid part-time wages for a full-time job. here's abc's linsey davis. >> they break you down. >> with the harassment and the mind games that they do. >> they make you scared so nobody wants to speak up. >> reporter: these former cheerleaders thought they'd landed the opportunity of a lifetime. dancing for the houston texans nfl team. >> they literally grabbed her stomach and pulled it down, duct taped her stomach. >> a man reaches over and runs his hand to the center of my crotch and grabs. >> reporter: the nine women now suing the team, alleging harassment and unfair pay. all part of a culture they say was meant to humiliate and intimidate them. >> you kind of learn to bite

your tongue and deal with it. >> i was so thankful that i was chosen for that experience. now i just look at those girls on the field and i feel sorry for them. >> reporter: it's just the latest chapter in a movement of women fighting back and saying, no more. do you think this is a byproduct of the "me too" movement? >> i do. it's women refusing to suffer in silence about economic inequities, unfairness in the workplace. >> reporter: iconic feminist lawyer gloria allred is representing these women -- >> ainsley parrish. >> ashley rodriguez. >> kelly turbo. >> bringing their story center stage. >> i believe they're being targeted and discriminated against because of their gender. >> the houston texans should not have given us a uniform if they did not want us toecome an army. >> reporter: these former cheerleaders -- >> this is ashlin. >> reporter: are suing the texans as well as the cheerleading coach, alto gary. >> page.

>> ashlin. >> jackie. >> danielle. >> reporter: two of those women spoke exclusively with abc news. >> making the team was everything you thought it would be, glitter, glitz. i wanted this for years. i was consumed with it. it was my life. then bad things were happening. people being called ugly names. we were being called jelly belly, chunky cheeks. >> reporter: danielle and ashlin were rookies last season. ashlin turned 18 days before trying out. she says her body looked like a teenager's when she made the team. >> this is right after i became a houston texan cheerleader. >> reporter: that summer things changed and her coach noticed. >> i woke up and looked like a woman, not a 12-year-old girl. she didn't like the way i looked. i remember coach alto saying, you look like you ate a plate of salt. >> reporter: her coach told her she looked like she'd gained the freshman 15. >> i was appalled. i've never been called fat. to this day i struggle with weight because i was young and i was called fat multiple times.

>> reporter: those women say because there was a culture of body shaming, some of them and their teammates felt they couldn't eat. >> i have had teammates tell me that they didn't eat. >> i have too. >> that they skipped meals. >> reporter: danielle says she too faced harassment from the coach about her appearance, specifically her race, saying she had to have curly, not straight, hair. >> she said, you're replaceable. there are millions of other hispanics in houston that could easily take your spot. she did not have to use the term "hispanic." don't get me wrong, i am proud to be that. as an employee, she shouldn't separate me from anybody else. >> reporter: they say the harassment extended into the stadium on game days. jackie chambers says part of her job was to entertain fans in the stands and suite boxes. she says the work could be dangerous, requiring the women to have a safe word to alert security if something got out of hand. >> the safe word is toro. you could not guarantee if you said your safe word, you would be heard. it's loud. people are drinking.

sometimes if we get lucky we're with an officer. otherwise, we're with a stadium employee. >> reporter: she says one fan sexually assaulted her in the stands. >> running back down the bleachers, a man reaches over from his chair and runs his hand all the way from the bottom of my boot heel, all wait up to the center of my crash, and grabs. >> reporter: jackie reported the incident to her coach but says she never heard of any follow-up. >> a lot of people are going to think, oh, well, you're in a little outfit, this is what you signed up for. i don't care. whether it's your mom, whether it's your sister, whether it's your daughter, somebody grabs someone else's crotch, it's not okay. and i thought, wow, working for a billion-dollar corporation, they would do something about it, ensure that this didn't happen again. >> reporter: these women say they endured all of this for minimum wage. $7.25 an hour. despite their contract stipulating a 30-hour workweek, they say they had to be on call 24/7 and were consistently not paid for required

activities, including some events and hundreds of hours spent traveling to and from events across the state. >> i think it's about that time, y'all, who's ready? >> reporter: in this houston texans website video, danielle talks about the long hours she says she was putting in. >> there's a lot of time commitment. i don't think i imagined how much. working a full-time job and being a cheerleader is a -- trying to find a balance. >> coach alto would say, this is a part-time job with full-time hours. and she wasn't lying. >> reporter: coach alto gary says as much in that video. >> i say it's a part-time job with full-time hours, if that makes any sense. it doesn't stop at practice. >> reporter: another requirement the women say they weren't paid for, social media. >> you're promoting the houston texans and you're not getting a dime for it. >> reporter: they were required to tweet multiple times a day during football season and expected to respond to e-mails and direct messages within ten minutes. if they didn't, they say there were consequences. >> i actually would send an

e-mail out to a specific person, you didn't reply to this, we expected a prompt reply, if you don't reply next time this could -- what did they say? >> affect how the rest of your season plays out. >> yes. this will affect how the rest of your season plays out. >> reporter: last week four of allred's clients came to new york city with a copy of their lawsuit to hand deliver it to the office of nfl commissioner roger goodell. >> these are working women. they deserve fair pay. >> reporter: abc fuse reached out to the nfl for comment but has not received a response. >> based on their level of training, do you think this should be or is a minimum wage job? >> this is not a minimum wage job. this job has value to the team and to the brand. >> it comes into a respect thing, i think. i'm giving you my heart and soul. for them to kind of throw it in our face and say, you can work all these hours, do all this stuff for us, bring in all this revenue for us, but you're only worth $7.25.

>> paying us minimum wage and then not also paying us the hours fully that we did work for you? that's just a slap in the face. >> do you make a distinction between the houston texans football team and the houston texans cheerleaders? do you hold the team accountable? >> they got comfortable. us as cheerleaders, as employees, because we were too scared to speak up. >> reporter: in a statement to abc news, houston texans said, in part, that they quote look forward to vigorously defending ourselves against these allegations. we appreciate the houston texans cheerleaders for the positive impact they have made in our community and for the outstanding way they have represented our organization for nearly two decades. if there are things we learned from this process that we feel make our cheer program even better, we will make the necessary adjustments. we do not tolerate mistreatment of our cheer team or our employees at any time. >> we love our team and we love our city. we want the texans to initiate

this change. because we know they're capable of it and we're hoping that the rest of the league will be able to follow their leadership. >> change is coming. the question is, are you going to come along with it or be on the wrong side of it? we're on the right side of history. we're going to make a difference. >> reporter: there may be strength in numbers but these women say there's even more strength in each other. >> i think we were a phenomenal team. i think it's a shame our couldn't didn't see that. i think the more she would bully us, the more she would harass us, the stronger we got. we won't be a cheerleader again, but i get to keep these girls forever. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm linsey davis in new york. up next, are you prepared to dodge bullets in a war zone? survival expert bear grylls teaching you how to live on the edge. if your moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's symptoms are holding you back,

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♪ there are so many bugs in the forest. but do you know which ones you can eat and which ones just to step over? marci gonzalez takes the new survival challenge with an expert who teaches just that, and more tips about staying alive in the wild. >> reporter: snake-filled pits of water. >> man, i'm not looking forward to this part. >> reporter: buckets of bugs. gunshots and explosions. they call this the sport of survival. take one part tough mudder,

throw in burly drill sergeants, top it off with this guy. >> i'm bear grylls. i'm going to show you what it takes to get out alive from some of the most dangerous places on earth. >> reporter: bear grylls, famed celebrity adventurer known for getting dangerously increa lly nature like "man versus wild." now he's showing everyday people how to face the wild with a new competition called the bear grylls survival challenge. >> go, go, go, go, go! >> reporter: the concept, train to survive the elements, at least for a few hours on a sunny saturday afternoon. contestants who sign up and pay the $90 entrance fee will have to navigate a diabolical six-mile course in the california heat, running through dark caves and burning cars. simulated explosions. and a firefight in a war-torn village. >> everyone likes to think they can do survival. i always think we're like grapes.re

unti made of. this whole challenge is about putting people under pressure and seeing if they could live when it matters. after getting lost in the woods as a kid, bill had to teach himself survival skills. he wants to take it to the next level. >> i was determined at that point forward to say, okay, if this ever happens again, what do i do? >> reporter: joining him is a celeb in the pack, "dancing with the stars" champion derek hough. >> a long way from the dance floor with something like this. do you feel like you're competing? >> yeah, i grew up in the mountains. i grew up outdoors. i grew up by a lake. the l as comfortable outside as i do on the dance floor. >> reporter: running through mud and burning cars can't prepare you to survive in the wild, can it? >> i met a lot of survivors, invariably they say the same thing, i never thought it would happen to me. >> to be prepared you've got to be tested. and that's what this whole

challenge is about. because without testing, there's no growth. >> reporter: as bear finishes his spiel and mission briefing, the pressure is on me. these are skills that will help me in the race? >> we have got three minutes, your start time is imnent. >> let's go! >> this is the accelerated version of what you need to survive. not only on this course, but this is all about prepping you to survive for the worst-case scenario. disaster hits, okay? >> crash course in survival. >> first of all, you're going to need this during the course. how are you at knots? >> terrible. >> around your waist. create a loop. the rabbit comes out of the hole. it goes round the tree. and back down the hole. okay? >> okay. >> that will save your life. survival is about being able to learn fast, work under pressure. we'll see if y what kind of sce would we need this? >> when i say lower yourself down a cliff, around the tree, back down the tree, down the

hole, boom. done. >> nailed it first try. >> second, fire. okay? little bit of tinder like this. little bit of cotton ball. you're going to need to waterproof it during this race. you're going to need to waterproof during this challenge. >> noted, noted. >> there is going to be water obstacles that might involve snakes. >> oh, man. snakes? i am terrified of snakes. >> you're going to have to make fire. fluff it up like this. this is a fire striker. strikes like that. creates a spark even when it's wet. go on, strike. really hit it. there you go. good, you got it under pressure. here we go. she's going. go, go. you have got the spirit of a survivor, i love it. >> reporter: loaded up with tools we were each given in these backpacks, ready or not, here we go.

okay, i guess we're really doing this. first up, some obstacles and a whole lot of running i thought i was in better shape than this. uphill, downhill, into raw chaos. >> when you get shot at, it's going to cost you a point if you get hit. >> reporter: ducking and squinting. through a simulated war-torn village. >> oh, man, this is really bad. >> you're dead! >> reporter: on the other side, some physical -- >> congratulations, you have successfully climbed everest. >> reporter: -- and local challenges. >> trying to figure out -- if that's north -- that's south. we thought we knew which way we were going, but -- >> we don't. >> reporter: i nailed a few, failed even more, including my attempt to tie a knot like bear taught me that probably would have better secured this sandbag around my waist. >> oh, this thing is heavy!

>> reporter: a little more than an hour, only halfway through. >> what do you think so far? >> i'm a lot tougher than i thought. survival's much easier when you watch somebody do it on tv. >> reporter: then a break of sorts. >> snack time. >> reporter: those are crickets. >> crunchy. >> reporter: back on the course -- >> sunflower seeds. put that in my head. >> reporter: and straight to the obstacle i have dreaded since bear dropped that hint. >> i am terrified of snakes. i really don't want to do this. >> that was fun! there were no snakes, you scared me for nothing. >> reporter: reinvigorated, i take on one last challenge. starting a fire from tinder into flint. >> you'll have three minutes to light the fire. >> i'm trying to remember what bear taught me. >> like that. >> here we go.

>> all right. good job. >> reporter: sometimes sailing to the finish line where there are no prizes except for some very well-earned bragging rights. for "nightline," i'm marci gonzalez. and i survived! whoo! next, a miraculous milestone on the baseball diamond. surprise people with how much they can get in a small suv. it's the big upgrade in a small package. see what you can get for under 20 grand... with the all-new ecosport from ford.

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finally tonight, exactly one year ago today, a horrific mass shooting at a congressional baseball practice nearly took his life. tonight, steve scalise taking the field for the annual congressional baseball game arm in arm with the capitol police officers who helped save him. scalise wasted no time. snagging a grounder for the

first out of the game before being mobbed by his teammates. talk about a field of dreams. the final score this year, republicans 5, democrats 21. thanks for watching abc news. good night, america.