Jerry let curtains block sun at AT&T for World Cup Match

There’s a thing about Jerry Jones and sunlight. He loves it. He built a football palace around it.

But when FIFA came to Arlington for the 2026 World Cup, even the Cowboys’ owner had to make a temporary concession to the globe’s biggest sporting event.

AT&T Stadium deployed black curtains to manage sunlight during Thursday’s Group F match between Japan and Sweden, marking the first time sunlight through the glass windows on the western side of the building became a factor during a match.

The Associated Press reported the development, and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio noted the contrast with how Jones handles things when his team is playing there.

The curtains did the job for the soccer match. Don’t expect them to hang around.

The remaining World Cup games scheduled at the facility aren’t expected to run into the same sunlight issue, and once the NFL season gets going, the curtains won’t be making any appearances for football.

That’s by design … specifically, Jerry Jones’ design.

Jones built sun into building on purpose

Most NFL venues are oriented on a north-south axis. That’s standard practice.

It keeps late-afternoon sun out of players’ eyes during games and eliminates glare as a factor on the field. Jones went a different direction, literally rotating AT&T Stadium 90 degrees so that sunbeams entering through the western glass would become part of the game-day experience.

He wanted the sun to be part of the show. That’s not a quirk or an accident.

It’s a deliberate aesthetic call that Jones made when the building was designed, and it’s one he’s stuck with ever since.

The Cowboys’ owner has made it clear he won’t do anything to mess with that look during his team’s home games.

So when the World Cup needed the curtains pulled to protect players and fans from glare during a midday soccer match, Jones allowed it.

That’s a one-time accommodation for a once-in-a-generation event. The moment the NFL calendar kicks back in, the sun comes back through those windows the way Jones always wanted it to.

It’s a small detail in the grand scope of a World Cup hosted across the United States.

It says something about the way Jones operates. He built AT&T Stadium as a monument to a vision — his vision — and that vision includes those beams of afternoon light cutting across the field.

He’s not about to pull the drapes on that, at least not for football.

Key takeaways:

• AT&T Stadium used black curtains to block sunlight during the Japan-Sweden World Cup match — the first game at the venue affected by sun entering through the western glass windows.
• Jerry Jones deliberately rotated the stadium 90 degrees from the typical north-south orientation so sunlight could stream in and enhance the look of Cowboys games — a design choice he’s unwilling to compromise for NFL play.
• None of the remaining World Cup matches at the facility are expected to need the curtains, and they won’t be used once football season begins.