Jerry Jones blames high winds for a piece of metal falling from the roof

The Cowboys decided to open the roof of AT&T Stadium days before Monday night’s game against the Texans. What they hadn’t factored in was the cold front that blew through Arlington on Monday morning.

The area experienced wind gusts of 20 mph Monday afternoon and stronger earlier in the day.

As stadium operators began to open the roof more than two hours before game time, a piece of metal fell from the roof onto the sideline. No one was injured.

“I’ll tell you right now what you had: You had high winds in this area during the day and apparently right around the time we opened it as well as before the wind had compromised part of the roof and then we opened that , then it had that piece, the wind took it and got under it,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after the game. “Be sure all that stuff is done out of the way of any fan or customer or something. ”

The roof hadn’t been open for a game in more than two years — since a game against the Bears on Oct. 30, 2022 — and the team intended to have the retractable end-zone doors open for last week’s game against the Eagles, but it did not opening them up completely, ESPN’s Todd Archer reports.

Monday’s game ended up being played with the roof closed.

“Apparently the wind did a little damage and when we tried to open it, there was wind coming under the roof at that time,” Jones said. “Everybody agreed it did some damage. But check around, Dallas had gusts all afternoon. They call them wind something, wind blasts or something like that. That’s the kind of thing that ended up causing that damage, apparent damage, and we were aware of that when we opened (the roof) a few hours before the game and had planned the moment we saw it not to open the roof.”

Another piece of loose metal stuck in a catwalk had to be bolted down before the game was allowed to start on time.

“They would not have played this game or started this game if there had been any risk at all,” Jones said. “Not only did the NFL not want to, but I didn’t want to if there was any risk at all. And there was no risk at all when we started the game.”

Jones said the roof is repairable.

AT&T Stadium opened in 2009 and has only had the roof open and the retractable end zone doors closed seven times.

On May 2, 2009, the Cowboys’ indoor practice facility collapsed at their old practice facility in Irving. Wind shear, just shy of hurricane force, tore through the bubble during a rookie minicamp. Eleven people were injured.