Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones continued to downplay the impact the sun is having on games played at AT&T Stadium, telling 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday that the sun "is way down the list of improvements" his team needs to make after falling to 3-6 on Sunday.
Jones explained that the stadium, also known as Jerry World, was purposely built with an unusual east-west alignment, as opposed to most venues being north-south.
"All I can say is that stadium was built to feel like it's outdoors when you're indoors and it was built to have sunlight coming in and every way that you could put it out there as though it were open air, yet still being inside," Jones said on Shan, RJ and Bobby. "It's the largest air conditioned space in the world. The stadium. It has over 3 million cubic feet of air conditioned space. My biggest thought when we were building it was don't have it not look like it's outdoors."
Jones went on to say that the stadium's flaw gives his team an advantage against opposing teams, explaining that the Cowboys have won the majority of the 52 games played when the sun was a factor since the stadium opened in 2009. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News disagrees with Jones, writing on X that the Cowboys are 29-29 at AT&T Stadium in games that start between 3 and 6:59 and are 107-68 in noon and primetime games combined.
"Every venue has certain things that at certain ways and times in the contest can create an advantage, that really goes under the category of home field advantage. And so usually, and that's the case with us, that if there's a field or in the case it's your home field, which it is of the Dallas Cowboys, it should be an advantage to the home team," Jones said. "So I don't want to adjust it for one reason is because it is an advantage to us. Over the years, we've played 52 games that have anything to do with the time of year when that sun could be there. Obviously, eliminating night games and games where the sun wouldn't be involved. We've had 52 games, we've won the majority of it, but more important than anything, we know where in basketball, we know where the dead spots are on the floor. That's our advantage. That should be our advantage. We get to play there more and we get to have it as advantage. It has been an advantage for us to know where the sun is. I don't want to change that.
"One of the things that I'm emphasizing here is that we know that whether it's snow, rain, sleet, mud, we know that elements play a part of football. You play the game and the elements as long as it's safe for everybody concerned.
And so you play it in the elements. This is our stadium's way of having elements and we should play to that when it's a appropriate and we should win out because it is our home field."
Late in the second quarter with the Cowboys down 7-6, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb appeared to not see a ball thrown by quarterback Cooper Rush that would have been a touchdown had it been caught. A replay showed the ball whisk by Lamb without the receiver making an effort to catch it. Lamb then pointed at his eyes as if he didn't see the ball coming his way.
After the game, Lamb confirmed with reporters, including Pat Doney of NBC 5, that the sun did in fact compromise him from seeing the ball. Lamb was asked if he would be in favor of the curtains being put up at AT&T Stadium despite team owner and general manager Jerry Jones' opposition to it over the years.
"1,000 percent," the star receiver said.
Complaints about the sun impacting games at AT&T Stadium have fallen on deaf ears over the years and Jones reiterated after the game that he will not entertain putting up curtains even if his team was negatively impacted by the sun.
“Well let’s tear the damn stadium down and build another one? Are you kidding me? “Everybody has got the same thing. Every team that comes in here has the same issues," Jones said unprompted. “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?”
As frustrated as Cowboys fans are about the sun, it appeared to impact Eagles' quarterback Jalen Hurts in the first half, who was sacked multiple times, one of which led to a fumble, when looking downfield into the sun on Sunday.