Why Won’t Jerry Jones Hang Curtains for Cowboys Games?

Maybe the Cowboys should start wearing sunglasses for game day.

CeeDee Lamb’s missed catch Sunday is far from the first time a Cowboys player has struggled with the bright sunlight pouring into AT&T Stadium.

The most frustrating part? The stadium does have blackout curtains that it uses for concerts and other sporting events. But owner Jerry Jones refuses to put them up for the Cowboys.

“By the way, we know where the sun is going to be when we decide to flip the coin or not. We do know where the damn sun is going to be in our own stadium,” Jones said after the game.

Cowboys games with a late-afternoon kickoff have long struggled with a setting sun since the $1.3 billion stadium opened in 2009. On Sunday’s 34–6 loss to the rival Eagles, Lamb dashed across the sun-splashed end zone, and the ball sailed past, missing him by a stride. Afterward, he pointed at his eyes, indicating he couldn’t see the ball. After the game, Lamb confirmed he couldn’t see the ball due to the sunlight, and he said he is “one thousand percent” in favor of curtains. AT&T Stadium recently hung blackout curtains for WrestleMania and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

“Well let’s tear the damn stadium down and build another one? Are you kidding me?” Jones said when asked about curtains. “Everybody has got the same thing. Every team that comes in here has the same issues.

“I’m saying, the world knows where the sun is. You get to know that almost a year in advance. Someone asked me about the sun. What about the sun? Where’s the moon?”

Twice in 2022, including during a playoff game, receivers missed passes because the sun prevented them from seeing the ball.

“Conditions and elements have been a part of football since it was spelled the first time,” Jones said after the January 2022 playoff loss. “That’s about 10,000 on my list of things to worry about. And, no, we’re not going to do anything with it. It goes both ways. Both teams had a chance to get in the sun, both teams had a chance to get out of the sun. Relative to the elements I see other people play in, it’s nothing.”

In 2021, a receiver ducked to avoid getting smacked in the face by a ball he couldn’t see. In 2017, two Cowboys receivers said the sun was a problem during a game and dropped passes. “The sun has not been a factor at all in any win or loss we’ve had in that stadium,” Jones said at the time.

Jones’s obstinance comes at a struggling time for the franchise, with a 3–6 record, a quarterback facing a season-ending injury, and a red-hot Chiefs squad coming for their title of America’s Team. The team’s next late-afternoon kickoff at home is on Thanksgiving Day against the Giants, giving Jerry Jones two and a half weeks to choose between his pleading receivers or his Icarian dreams.

(Update, Nov. 11, 4:53 p.m.: Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys are aware of sun-blocking technology. The team put out a shield to block the sun from getting in McCarthy’s face at his Monday afternoon press conference.)