Did Cowboys blind their own players through stadium design?

by | Sep 12, 2016

The Dallas Cowboys started the 2016 season off on the wrong foot, taking a 20-19 loss to the New York Giants.

Plenty of blame went around. Tony Romo wasn’t in the game, meaning rookie Dak Prescott was under center. Terrance Williams had one of the worst clock-management plays of all time.

More than anything, though, the most common culprit accused of hurting the Cowboys was one thing—the sun.

Seriously, the sun shot through the ridiculous AT&T Stadium so much Joe Buck and Troy Aikman wouldn’t stop talking about it during the broadcast. Then, after, tight end Jason Witten decided to address the issue with the media, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram‘s Charean Williams:

“Yeah, it was, but you know what you still should make the plays,” the tight end said. “There’s no question about that. The sun kind of got us on a little bit. But we still need to make those plays. I need to make it.”

Williams added context to what isn’t a new occurrence:

Other teams have complained about the glare at the end of 3:25 p.m. games, with the sun shining through the west windows at AT&T Stadium. But it marked the first time since the stadium opened in 2009 that the Cowboys have complained about it.

Twitter, of course, had plenty to say on the matter:

Just another day in Jerry World, folks.