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For the past 17 seasons, the Dallas Cowboys have played their home games at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The venue, best known for its huge video board suspended above the 50-yard line, was temporarily renamed Dallas Stadium as it hosts several World Cup matches.
End zones, markers and artificial turf disappeared inside the retractable roof stadium during football games. But one change caught Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer’s attention: curtains installed to block the famous sunlight from spilling onto the natural grass field.
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Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer looks on before the game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on October 26, 2025. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)
“I’m a big… actually a World Cup guy. I watch a lot of games. It was cool for me. I went to the Star to watch the viewing parties and everything that people put on. It looked like they had the blinders up… the blinds,” Schottenheimer told reporters at a news conference earlier this week.
“So it’s majestic like when we play our games. The grass and the shadows, it’s not as majestic. They’re going to miss the experience.”
Sunlight shines through the windows of AT&T Stadium during the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants in Arlington, Texas on October 10, 2021. (Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Glaring natural light has been a recurring problem since the Cowboys moved into their billion-dollar home in 2009.
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During a 2017 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, then-Cowboys receivers Dez Bryant and Brice Butler both blamed the sun’s glare for missed catches. A few years later, in a 2021 playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, wideout Cedrick Wilson never seemed able to see a pass thrown to him. The following year, Michael Gallup failed to throw what would have been a touchdown – again probably because of the glare.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith throws a pass during the NFL game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on November 5, 2017. (Matthieu Visinsky/Icon Sportswire)
Schottenheimer also weighed in on the subject earlier in his first season as Cowboys head coach, sarcastically calling the sunlight streaming through AT&T Stadium “majestic.”
“Well, I’ve been here a little while and I’ve heard about it,” Schottenheimer said in October 2025 via the Associated Press.
“Hey, look, if you could see the process and the plan that we have in place to figure it out. We have satellite images. We have photos of the sun, when it sets. There’s a big plan and a big process. But I think when you look historically at what’s happened, it hasn’t really affected a lot of situations. We plan for it. The naysayers plan for it. But at the end of the day, it’s something that we’re aware of. It’s very beautiful. It’s majestic when the sun comes through.”
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AT&T Stadium hosted its first World Cup match on June 14, when the Netherlands and Japan tied 1-1. The NFL stadium, better known as “Jerry World” after longtime Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, hosted its second tournament game on Wednesday, when England beat Croatia 4-2.
The curtains were raised for these two matches. They are expected to return on June 22, when Lionel Messi and reigning world champions Argentina face Austria.
