Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the sunlight that peaks through AT&T Stadium is a “home-field advantage,” but it was the complete opposite in Week 10. Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb looked like he had an easy touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles until the sun got in his eyes and he admitted that he couldn’t “see the ball.”
Lamb said he would be “1000%” in favor of curtains put up, just as they are for concerts, college football games and high school football games. The problem with that plan is that Jones is not on board. The owner believes the sunlight works in the Cowboys’ favor, and he doesn’t plan on making any changes.
“That really goes under the category of home-field advantage,” Jones said (via Pro Football Talk). “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.”
The sun clearly wasn’t on Dallas’ side in their 34-6 divisional Week 10 loss, but Jones gave a reason as to why. Jones said because Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore played for the Cowboys for three years and was a coach with them for four years, he knew what to expect.
“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.”
Jones emphasized that the stadium is designed to feel like it’s outside despite being an indoor arena.
“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,'” Jones said. “That stadium was built to feel like it’s outdoors when you’re indoors, and it was built to have sunlight coming in.”
Jones said there are many things the Cowboys need to improve, and the sunlight coming in “is way down the list of improvement.”