Rookie star Caleb Downs is going to have a lot of eyes on him when he takes the field at AT&T Stadium this season. But the young gun did not have to wait long to find out the venue’s flaws. CeeDee Lamb, no stranger to the stadium’s sun glare problem, vetted Downs’ concerns.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“That far side, I’m going to tell you like this bro, that far, that far end zone. It cost me a touchdown. Let’s say that. I ain’t gonna lie,” CeeDee Lamb said on Downs 2 Business, breaking down exactly what it’s like playing on that end of AT&T Stadium.
“I was catching some balls pregame because I was just throwing to the guys. I’m like this cannot be every game. This is bad,” Caleb Downs said, describing his first real run-in with AT&T Stadium’s glare problem.
Lamb’s frustration goes back to that infamous November 2024 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Dallas was trailing 34-6 at that time, and Lamb had a real shot at a touchdown that could have sparked some momentum for the Cowboys offense. Lamb was right in the path of the ball, but he made no move to catch it. He was completely blinded by the sun rays coming from the massive windows behind the end zone.
“I couldn’t see the ball. Couldn’t see the ball, at all. The sun,” he said afterward, still visibly frustrated on the sideline.
At the time, the Cowboys were sitting at 3-6, in the middle of a four-game losing streak, and sitting at 0-4 at home inside AT&T Stadium.
That’s the thing about this stadium. It cost $1.2 billion to build, but is among only two stadiums in the country with an east-west orientation, which allows afternoon sun to pour straight through the end zone glass during fall games.
Players have complained about it for years. Coaches hate it. Fans notice it too. When reporters asked Lamb point blank if curtains would fix it, he didn’t hesitate. “Yes. One thousand percent.”
Jerry Jones wasn’t interested in curtains at all, which are already installed in the stadium. The 83-year-old owner brushed the idea off entirely.
“By the way, we know where the sun is going to be when we flip the coin, so we do know where the damn sun is going to be in our own stadium,” Jones said. “Let’s just tear the damn stadium down and build another one. Are you kidding me?”
Lamb wasn’t the only one facing the issue, either. Last Thanksgiving, during Dallas’ matchup against Kansas City, receiver George Pickens was also blinded by the sunlight.
“The sun was beating in my eyes, so I couldn’t see,” he admitted afterward.
However, Lamb has since adapted to the problem.
During training camp, he started running Jugs machine drills wearing a mesh net over his helmet and facemask, deliberately cutting down his own vision so his eyes would learn to track the ball through tighter sightlines. Nobody in the league had really tried anything like it before.
Dallas beat reporter Patrik Walker caught it on camera first, posting the clip with a simple caption: “oh … that’s new.” It pulled in four million views in under a day.
Lamb fares better in home games than away. In the 47 games he has played at AT&T Stadium, he’s hauled in 3,898 yards (via The Sporting News). That is more than half of Lamb’s regular season receiving yards.
And here’s the part that makes Downs’ comment land even harder. When the 2026 FIFA World Cup rolled through AT&T Stadium, organizers had drawn the curtains for the matches. For the duration of the tournament, FIFA had the final say over what to do with the stadium; Jerry Jones and others in the top brass were also forced to give up their staple seats in the VIP __.
So, Dallas already has the fix on hand. It’s just never been used for one of its own games. On the other hand, Downs isn’t saying anything new here. He’s just the latest one willing to say it out loud.