The Cowboys’ sunlight problem at AT&T Stadium, explained

Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys have a problem on the field, and off

When Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys unveiled AT&T Stadium, the new facility contained a multitude of features that made it a state-of-the-art facility not just for the NFL team, but for sporting contests and entertainment events throughout the year.

For the football team itself, AT&T Stadium features a massive video board, suspended 90 feet above the field and measuring 160 feet wide by 72 feet tall. AT&T Stadium also features 300 suites, one of the world’s largest retractable roofs — one that can be closed in under 15 minutes — and end zone windows and walls that can be opened depending on the event taking place.

However, there is one feature that has posed a problem for the Cowboys, as well as other teams visiting AT&T Stadium.

The sun.

Specifically, the angle of the sun, which comes in through those end zone windows late in the afternoon as the sun dips into the Texas horizon in the west. We can start with this overhead view of AT&T Stadium, courtesy of Google Maps:

As you can see, the layout of AT&T Stadium runs slightly East-West, from slightly northeast on the right side (when looking at the stadium from above) to slightly southwest.

That is where the angle of the sun, and the resulting glare on the field, comes into play. In the below photo from a 2022 game between the Cowboys and the Cincinnati Bengals, you can see what that looks like from the field:

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Many NFL analysts and writers pointed out the problems the sun created during Sunday’s game between the Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, a game Dallas lost by a final score of 34-6. That loss dealt the Cowboys’ already slim playoff chances a near-fatal blow:

Perhaps the biggest example? When wide receiver CeeDee Lamb missed a throw in his direction while open in the end zone. Immediately after the incompletion the wide receiver made note of the sun in his eyes:

Owner Jerry Jones continues to push back on the issues the glare creates, noting that the team knows where the sun will be ahead of time, and factor that knowledge into their coin toss decision before each home game. “By the way,” Jones said Sunday after the loss, “we know where the sun is going to be when we decide to flip the coin or not.”

Jones even went as far on Tuesday to call the issue an “advantage” for the Cowboys:

Although, given that the Cowboys play their home games there — and therefore face the issue at least seven times a season, if not more — it is hard to call it an advantage from where we sit.

However, there is something that Dallas can do to reduce the impact of the sun’s angle. They could put curtains along the wall on that western end of the stadium. Lamb, speaking about the issue after Sunday’s loss, was in support of the idea:

As noted, AT&T Stadium is used to host entertainment events such as concerts, and curtains are used during those shows to reduce the glare of the sun. Jon Machota of The Athletic shared an image of those curtains back in April of 2018:

Yet Jones bristled at the notion of mitigating the impact of the sun’s glare when speaking with the media Sunday evening. “Well, let’s just tear the damn stadium, build another one,” said Jones. “You kidding me?”

Back in 2016 Bryan Trubey, the executive vice president of sports and entertainment for HKS, the Dallas-based architectural firm that designed AT&T Stadium, told The Dallas Morning News that the sun issues do not stem from a building flaw in the stadium, but were rather a part of the bigger plan for the feel of the stadium, and for developing the area around AT&T Stadium.

“That stadium was developed as part of a master plan,” Trubey said back in 2016. “That master plan will play out some day and the alignment between the stadium and the ballpark is one of the key elements to the entire master plan.

“So when we were laying out the stadium one thing we wanted to do was make sure the end zones were completely open. It was one of the keys to making sure the stadium did something that no other stadium has ever done before or done since. It transforms from an indoor, 80,000-seat arena to what feels like an outdoor stadium.

“That’s the reason the end zones are open and the orientation is the way it is because that’s the absolute best alignment to play out the final master plan and in creating the most value in the land around the stadium itself.”

That master plan may very well create the most value in the land outside AT&T Stadium.

But right now it is impacting the team that plays inside AT&T Stadium.