Cowboys Loss Was Blamed on Sun Glare — Are Stadium Curtains Even Possible?
The $1.2 billion dollar retractable roof on the stadium is no match for a little sunshine.
Published Nov. 12 2024, 5:08 p.m. ET
It's never good to get on your boss' bad side, and that's exactly what it sounds like happened to a Dallas Cowboys player after he blamed the sun for an incomplete play during an important match against the Philadelphia Eagles.
CeeDee Lamb told reporters that Mother Nature played a pivotal role in the team's Nov. 10, 2024 loss to the birds, something that left Jerry Jones cursing when asked about the comments by another interviewer.
Learn what Lamb had to say below, including exactly how Jones feels about the stadium's so-called sun glare problem.
CeeDee Lamb floated the idea of adding curtains to AT&T Stadium.
The Dallas receiver wasn't holding back when reporters approached him after the game at AT&T Stadium. "I couldn’t see the ball," Lamb told NBC News during a post-game interview. "Couldn’t see the ball, at all. The sun."
The bad play happened during the second quarter when the Cowboys were in possession. Teammate Cooper Rush tried to get the ball to an open Lamb, but the player was blinded by the sun and couldn't seem to track the pigskin as it flew through the air.
CeeDee Lamb and Jerry Jones
Lamb could be seen gesticulating towards his eyes afterwards, and even continued to do so from the sidelines, which garnered a lot of attention in the post-game interview when a reporter asked if maybe curtains were the answer to the stadium's sun problems. "Yes. One thousand percent," he said.
Only it didn't seem like Lamb had any intention of asking the man in charge to splurge on the extra shade, since he then appeared to backtrack when the reporter asked him if he would make the suggestion to Jones.
"I mean, y’all are doing my job for me right now," Lamb quipped.
Jerry Jones expresses anger over the suggestion about adding curtains to AT&T Stadium.
Lamb is hardly the first person to ever make this suggestion, which is likely why Jones appeared so agitated when reporters asked him about making the improvement.
"By the way, we know where the sun is going to be when we flip the coin, so we do know where the d--n sun is going to be in our own stadium," the 82-year-old told reporters. "Let’s just tear the damn stadium down and build another one. Are you kidding me?"
In fact, Jones appeared on the 105.3 The Fan radio show, according to Bleacher Report, where he balked at the idea that the sun was the problem, instead hinting at other changes that needed to be made.
"Of all the things that we need to improve, that is way down the list of improvement," he continued. "That stadium was built to feel like you're outdoors. It's the largest air-conditioned space in the world. My biggest thought when we were building it was... make it look like it was outdoors."
It's easy to see why the billionaire is frustrated about the questions when you consider just how much he dropped to build the new stadium — that, it's worth noting, has a retractable roof. But, instead of making a change that many think could help the Cowboys recover from their four-game losing streak, it seems like Jones is dead set against the idea, telling the same reporter that everyone who plays in the arena has to deal with the same issues.
"They know where the sun is going to be. Every team has the same thing. I’m not saying (it’s on McCarthy)," Jones said of the Dallas coach. "I’m saying the world knows where the sun is. We get to know that almost a year in advance. So someone asked me about the sun. What about the sun? Where’s the moon? We’re fine. But everybody plays in the sun out here."
Whether the sun played as big of a factor in the Nov. 10, 2024 loss as everyone is making it to have remains to be seen, but at least one thing is clear: don't ask Jones about adding curtains to the stadium unless you want to get on his bad side.
