The roof was supposed to open at AT&T Stadium for ‘Monday Night Football,’ but after a near accident, it will now be closed.
The Dallas Cowboys are hosting the Houston Texans in the intrastate matchup on Monday night, and the home team decided to open the retractable roof of the stadium for the first time in more than two years. The social media account of the stadium even marked the occasion.
However, things went quickly south. According to multiple reporters inside the stadium, not long after it was opened, a piece of sheet metal fell from the roof and onto the field. No one was hit, but reports said it came close to making contact with production staff on-site.
Other videos taken by reporters showed there appeared to be another loose piece of metal in the rafters of the stadium.
Not long after the piece of metal fell, the roof of AT&T Stadium began to close.
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‘We can confirm a piece of metal came loose and fell to the field (with some additional small debris) while the roof was in the process of opening,’ the Cowboys said in a statement, according to television station KDFW. ‘There were no injuries. It is being reviewed further, and a decision regarding the ability to re-open the roof safely will be made when possible.’
ESPN cameras catch metal piece falling from AT&T Stadium
ESPN’s ‘Monday Night Countdown’ crew touched on the incident, with sideline reporter Lisa Salters adding, ‘a big piece of metal just kind of floated down and fell onto the field.’ The network later showed footage of the piece falling, with people appearing to move out of the way of it before it hit the ground.
Salters said it was determined the other piece loose piece of metal near the roof needed to be secured before the game began, which was done.
Kickoff for the game is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. It becomes the latest issue surrounding the stadium after Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lashed out at question about the sun’s glare inside the stadium following the beatdown the team suffered against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 10.
“Well let’s tear the damn stadium down and build another one?” Jones sarcastically said. “Are you kidding me?”
(This story was updated with additional videos and details.)