In 2009, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was hell-bent on building the best NFL venue in the league. He wanted the fans to feel like they were attending an outdoor game despite sitting indoors. So, he installed massive glass windows in the East-West sitting AT&T Stadium, reasoning that the sun glare on end zones could be the team’s home advantage. Time and again, however, that feature has come back to bite him, and unfortunately, the team.

In their very first offensive possession in the 2021 Wild Card clash against the San Francisco 49ers, the team was trailing 10-0. Quarterback Dak Prescott threw a six-yarder to WR Cedrick Wilson, but lost the ball in the sun. Similarly, in 2024, a wide-open CeeDee Lamb missed a three-yarder in the end zone, dropping the Week-10 game to the Philadelphia Eagles. But with the Dallas Stadium hosting several FIFA World Cup Games this year, the discussion to solve the problem has returned. And Jones might also be considering it.

“Well, do you know something? Thinking about it and doing something about it are two different things,” Jerry Jones said in an interview with Fox4‘s Mike Doocy. “But I’ll think about it.

“It’s hard to tell that time of the year because the sun’s not the same this time of the year than it is in the fall. That is, you get on in, the sun changes, and the angle of that sun changes from September through the year around. But as we look at it, I like some of the effects of the tinting. We’re giving that a thought.”

Get The Huddle Newsletter. The day's biggest NFL stories — rivalries, matchups, expert analysis, power rankings, and insider draft news.

Well, this is certainly welcome news, especially from a man who seemed almost convinced there was no problem at all.

“We do know where the damn sun’s going to be at our own stadium,” Jones had said back in 2024. “Well, let’s just tear the damn stadium down and build another one? You kidding me?”

Funnily, just the day after Jerry Jones said this, the Cowboys had to put sunscreen in front of head coach Mike McCarthy during his press conference because the sunlight was shining directly into his eyes. And if that’s not evidence enough, even his own team players didn’t hold back. Just two weeks after the team owner’s statement, CeeDee Lamb talked about what went wrong in that infamous uncatchable pass.

“I couldn’t see the ball,” the wide receiver said after the loss. “The sun.”

Then, exactly a year later, after a victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, Pickens had complained of the same issue. 

“I really couldn’t see the ball,” Pickens said. “It was the sun.”

What really took the cake, though, was when Travis Kelce decided to chime in.

“That f—ing glare coming through that end zone in the afternoon is f—ing ridiculous,” the Chiefs tight end said on his ‘New Heights’ podcast two years ago. “Absolutely ridiculous. It’s like the glass makes it f—ing like spread more. It’s like the sun is bigger and brighter than it’s ever f—ing been.”

But why are the Cowboys even facing this issue in the first place? Most NFL stadiums are built North-South to avoid the sun. But thanks to AT&T Stadium’s peculiar East-West orientation, sunlight enters the stadium through the giant windows when the sun sets and directly on the field and right into players’ eyes. Funny enough, curtains are drawn for every other event at the stadium, like the 2026 FIFA World Cup that they hosted in June and July. Since the international body controlled the venues hosting the World Cup matches, the windows were tinted to prevent the sunlight from creating problems.

For the Japan vs Sweden match, they even drew curtains. But with the World Cup done, everyone expected the stadium to go back to basics.

The natural soil field has already been replaced by artificial turf. Naturally, people expected the curtains to be drawn open, too. However, if the tinted windows stay, the players will have one less reason to complain, even if it takes away exactly what gives AT&T Stadium the edge, at least according to Jones.

Jerry Jones clarifies why he never wants to fix the sun glare

Back in 2024, Jerry Jones explained that AT&T Stadium was built this way on purpose. He wanted natural sunlight in the stadium so fans would feel like they were watching an outdoor football game, even though they were sitting indoors. He believed it was part of what made AT&T Stadium unique.

Jones felt the glare was part of the Cowboys’ home-field advantage and did not think it needed to be fixed.

“More importantly than anything in basketball, we know where the dead spots are on the floor,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “That’s our advantage. That should be our advantage.

“We get to play there more, and we get to have it as an advantage. It has been an advantage for us to know where the sun is. I don’t want to change that.”

Surely enough, teams have natural or artificial home advantages. Take the weather-related advantage of Green Bay’s Lambeau Field, who play in cold environments, or the Denver Broncos’ elevation benefit. But while the windows on either end zone have given the Cowboys an upper hand, it has also been a boon to the team. Now that Jones is finally agreeing to take action, the Cowboys might finally have a solution to harsh sun glare.