Yahoo Sports Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Refuses Request from CeeDee Lamb to Get Curtains at Their $1.3B Stadium to Block Sun
The team is looking for answers after a 3-6 start, but new window treatments are a "no" as far as Jones is concerned, he said in a radio interview on Tuesday, Nov. 12
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Owner Jerry Jones is glaringly batting back the suggestion that the sun is responsible for the Dallas Cowboys losing five consecutive home games and sporting a 3-6 record.
"Of all the things that we need to improve, that is way down the list of improvement," Jones said on 105.3 The FAN radio in Dallas-Fort Worth on Tuesday, Nov. 12, in response to recent suggestion from Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb that the setting sun creates problems for players due to glare from a bank of windows above the end zone in late-afternoon games.
He continued, "It's the largest air conditioned space in the world. Every venue has certain things that at certain ways and times can create an advantage. That really goes under the category of home-field advantage. It should be an advantage to the home team. ... It has been an advantage for us to know where the sun is. I don't want to change that."
As the season continues to unravel for the franchise — with the news Tuesday that quarterback Dak Prescott will undergo season-ending surgery on his hamstring — Jones, 82, is doubling down on what is commonly known as “Jerry World,” his $1.3-billion, 15-year-old stadium in Arlington, Texas.
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“Well let’s tear the damn stadium down and build another one?” Jones joked in the radio spot. “Are you kidding me?”
Jones’ comments come days after Lamb, 25, floated the idea that the blinding sun was the reason why he dropped a 3-yard pass which would have resulted in a touchdown in the game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Nov. 10.
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Lamb told reporters afterwards that he “couldn’t see the ball at all,” and then agreed that the windows would be improved with curtains.
“Yes,” Lamb said. “1,000%”
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So far, Jones has resisted any after-market retouches to the stadium, which features a seldom-seen East-West orientation.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News in 2016, an executive with the architectural firm responsible for the stadium addressed its lack of window dressing.
“That stadium was developed as part of a master plan,” Bryan Trubey, with HKS, told the newspaper.
Referring to the Texas Rangers stadium next door, he added: “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.”
