It’s the details that kill ya. AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas is Jerry Jones’ crowning architectural achievement, a monument to Cowboy excellence and a model for the next generation of billion-dollar sports palaces. It’s a majestic creation, with just one small flaw: it has a tendency to blind players.
The angle of the late-year sun with the east-west positioning of the stadium combines to create an environment that’s literally tough to look at. Check out how it looks from the field:
This has been a problem for years, of course; it’s not like the position of the sun in the sky is something new for Dallas to manage. But on Sunday against Philadelphia, Dallas receivers looking back from the end zone were staring straight into the sun, and the result was catastrophic.
At one point, Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson and wideout CeeDee Lamb couldn’t see the ball when it was headed their way:
The sun doesn’t just affect the Cowboys, of course; it’s entirely possible that it might have affected the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, too:
And again…look at the sun off Jalen Hurts’ helmet. That’s 3 sacks and a fumble in 3 pass attempts. Imagine Jalen won’t want to make excuses but very curious if he could see downfield pic.twitter.com/UUlJiAldLD
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) November 10, 2024
Note that the sun marches across the field over the course of the game, causing problems for anyone who finds themselves in its glare:
As Jalen Hurts takes consecutive sacks while standing in the AT&T Stadium sun spots, I’m wondering whether the Eagles QB could see downfield pic.twitter.com/4SS1Nwj3NO
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) November 10, 2024
Now, it’s not like players aren’t used to playing in sun; there are, in fact, football stadiums in America that don’t have a roof at all. It’s the angle that’s the issue here, the way that the sun is focused — like a magnifying glass on an ant colony — that makes for such a problem. Well, that and the fact that the Cowboys probably could have factored in the angle of the sun’s rays when they were positioning the stadium in the first place.
Back in the olden days, Cowboys fans used to say that the roof of Cowboys Stadium, AT&T’s predecessor, was left open so that God could watch his favorite team play. We won’t presume to know the rooting interests of the Almighty, but it’s clear that on Sunday, the sun had an unrestricted view of some really bad football. The Eagles cruised to a 34-6 victory.
After the game, Jones brought up the sunlight issue himself. “By the way,” he said, “we know where the sun is going to be when we decide to flip the coin or not.”
When asked about possible measures to mitigate the sunlight, Jones replied, “Well, let’s just tear the damn stadium, build another one. You kidding me?”
For his part, Lamb was asked if the stadium needed curtains to block out the sun. “Yes,” Lamb replied, “One thousand percent.”
CeeDee Lamb if AT&T Stadium needs curtains: “Yes 1000%”
— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) November 11, 2024
Ancient sundials would use the movement of the sun across the sky and over the course of the year to track the passage of time. Dallas can use it to track in-season futility; when the November sun blinds its players, it’s almost time for the Cowboys to be eliminated from playoff contention. Everything’s right on schedule.
