Jerry Jones Continues To Defend Stadium: Blinding Sunlight Is Part Of Cowboys' ‘Home Field Advantage'
The blinding sunlight at AT&T Stadium claimed another victim on Sunday when CeeDee Lamb missed a would-be, wide-open touchdown catch because he couldn't see the ball coming. But Jerry Jones is tired of hearing about it.
The Dallas Cowboys owner continues to defend the poorly planned stadium windows that allow direct sunlight to shine in players' eyes during afternoon games. In fact, Jones is arguing the windows are actually a good thing for the Cowboys.
"That really goes under the category of home-field advantage," Jones said. "It should be an advantage to the home team, so I don’t want to adjust it for one reason because it is an advantage to us… That’s our advantage. That should be our advantage. We get to play there more, and we get to have it as an advantage. It has been an advantage for us to know where the sun is. I don’t want to change that."
Sun shines brightly through the windows at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium, decreasing visibility for the team facing that direction.
(Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
During afternoon games, specifically the late-afternoon games, AT&T Stadium's uncovered windows create a glare that not only affects the thousands of fans looking in that direction, but the players on the field as well.
The Cowboys fell to the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-6, in Week 10. And while the sunlight wasn't the only problem for Dallas, it certainly helped the Eagles on more than one occasion. Jones said that's because Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore (who spent time with the Cowboys as both a player and a coach) had inside info!
"Kellen Moore knew about it," Jones said. "He spent, I’m sure he spent a lot of time — their coordinator, who used to be here — I’m sure he spent a lot of time planning and thinking about where the sun is going to be. He should."
Jerry Jones Sees No Problem With AT&T Stadium
AT&T Stadium — also known as Jerry World — was completed in 2009 and cost a whopping $1.3 billion to construct. And Jones won't tolerate any disparaging words about his architectural masterpiece.
"It’s the largest air-conditioned space in the world, the stadium," Jones said. "It has over 3 million cubic feet of air-conditioned space. My biggest thought when we were building it was, don’t have it look like it’s not outdoors. Make it look like it’s outdoors."
Don't tell Jerry Jones what to do in his own stadium!
(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
And don't you dare even suggest that they should hang curtains.
"Of all the things that we all need to improve, that is way down the list of improvement," Jones said.
The 2024 Dallas Cowboys are a diaster from top to bottom. So Jerry might actually have a point there.