Jerry Jones is sticking with the look of AT&T Stadium, even with the Washington Commanders coming to town for Sunday’s home opener.
On Friday, the Cowboys owner and general manager was asked on 105.3 The Fan whether Dallas would tint the stadium windows to cut down on the late-afternoon glare. Jones said he wasn’t aware of any such plan.
“I really don’t know about that at all,” Jones said. “So, no, not necessarily.”
He then made it even clearer: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t know of any plans to surprise our fans.”
That answer came with less than 48 hours to go before kickoff, set for 4:25 p.m. ET, or 3:25 p.m. local time on the Cowboys’ official gameday page.
And that time matters at AT&T Stadium, which runs east-west and lets the west-side sun pour in late in the day. Receivers have trouble tracking the ball.
Officials deal with the glare. Visiting teams have to account for it from the opening coin toss on.
Dallas and Washington both enter at 0-1. The Cowboys lost 28-20 at the Giants last week, while the Commanders fell 24-22 at Philadelphia.
The stadium has already shown what a tinted setup can look like. During a World Cup match in June, workers covered the big doors on each side of the building, and Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram posted that the glare was gone: “Not quite curtains… No glare or sunlight coming through onto the pitch as a result.”
Curtains were later used for other tournament games, including Japan-Sweden, after FIFA asked for the west end to be covered. Jones has long resisted that kind of change for Cowboys games, saying the team knows where the sun will be at kickoff and can plan around it. He has also made it clear he likes the stadium’s open look on television.
That said, the subject wasn’t completely off the table in August. While speaking with Mike Doocy and Sam Gannon of Fox 4 at training camp in Oxnard, Jones said he liked “some of the effects of the tinting” and added that the club was “giving that a thought.” Gannon later posted the exchange on X, and The Dallas Morning News also reported the same camp remarks.
CeeDee Lamb has felt the problem firsthand. In a Nov. 10, 2024 game against Philadelphia, he missed a wide-open touchdown at the west end and afterward pointed to his eyes.
“Couldn’t see the ball, at all. The sun,” he told reporters then.
More recently, Lamb sounded like he expected a fix. On Caleb Downs’ Downs 2 Business podcast, he told Downs to watch that 3:25 kickoff once the second quarter starts, then added, “I think they’re going to put tint on the glass now, so we’ll see.”
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer left a sliver of room on the same Friday radio appearance, saying, “Anything’s possible,” even though Jones had already shot down the idea. Schottenheimer had also joked back in June that teams would “miss the experience” and that the building was “not as majestic” with the coverings in place.
Sunday is the first late-window home kickoff of the year, and the sun angle is a real issue at that hour. Jones said in Oxnard that the light changes from September on. That means the west end can become a problem around the second quarter of a 3:25 local start, exactly the kind of situation Lamb was talking about.
For now, though, Jones is leaving the glass alone. And unless something changes before kickoff, AT&T Stadium will look the same as always - bright, open, and ready to let the sun do some of the defending.
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