Cowboys' Massive New Stadium Not Big Enough To Play Football In
Jerry Jones (and Texas taxpayers) spent $1.2 billion constructing an opulent state-of-the-art multi-use arena that's perfect for concerts, soccer matches, trade shows, Promise Keepers rallies, and even football games—provided that you don't allow either team to punt.
Forty million of those dollars went to the installation of a massive 160-foot long, 90-foot high HD video board that dominates the airspace above the field. And in a surprise twist that no one could have seen coming, it took only one game to learn that an average NFL punter can easily smack the thing on a routine kick. Titans backup A.J. Trapasso hit it in the third quarter of their preseason game last night. Starter Craig Hentrich said he hit it half a dozen times in warmups and estimated that half the league's kickers wouldn't be able to punt normally in that building.
Jones isn't buying that, however. He says the board has "entertainment value" and has no plans to move it higher. (There probably isn't room, anyway.) Plus, Jones is convinced that the only danger is a devious punter with no regard for the laws of football who would intentionally try to hit the thing.
"If you look at how you punt the football, unless you're trying to hit the scoreboard, you punt the ball to get downfield. You certainly want to get some hangtime, but you punt the ball to get downfield, and you sure don't punt the ball down the middle. You punt it off to the side."
"How high is high if somebody just wants to sit there and kick straight up?"
Yeah, why would a punter ever want to kick a ball ... up? That's not the Cowboy way, I tell ya.
Titans kicker exposes problem in Cowboys Stadium [ESPN]
Jerry Jones: The scoreboard isn't budging [Dallas Morning News]
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