Report: Arlington city officials inspect AT&T Stadium, reveal what caused sheet metal incident

Arlington city officials have inspected AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, and they revealed what caused the sheet metal to fall from the roof. A spokesperson from the City of Arlington told TMZ Sports the city’s building inspector and deputy fire marshall have deemed the stadium safe. This comes less than 24 hours after the sheet metal incident during the Monday Night Football game between the Cowboys and Houston Texans.

“The metal piece that fell to the field was a covering lid to a cable tray that was moved by wind gusts as the roof was opening,” the city said in a statement. “The cable tray was in the high steel area near the top of the stadium.”

The rep told TMZ Sports they are confident “there are no structural issues with the venue or its retractable roof.”

The Cowboys planned to open their roof to AT&T Stadium for the game until the sheet metal fell to the ground. Nobody was injured, and after the game Cowboys owner Jerry Jones spoke to reporters about the incident.

Jerry Jones reacts to sheet metal incident at AT&T Stadium

“You had wind gusts a lot all day long, and apparently did a lot of damage and then when we tried to open it up, the winds got underneath the roof at that time,” Jones said, per CBS Sports. “Everybody agreed that it did some damage, but you check around Dallas had wind gusts all afternoon. … We were aware of it when we were opening the doors a few hours before the game and had a plan that minute to not open the roof.”

Jones went on to say the issue can be fixed. “It’s fixable, but we didn’t have, it wasn’t the situation or time or otherwise to do it tonight,” Jones added. “There was no risk at all to anyone on the field playing once we shut the roof. … we opened and shut the door [the roof] before any fans or anybody was in there. I think it’s four hours before. The reason they do is to make sure everything is working and to avoid those kinds of risks if there’s any fans or anybody in there. So that’s what happened, and it worked.”

AT&T Stadium opened in 2009 and can seat as many as 100,000 people. The last time the Cowboys opened the roof to the stadium was in 2022 when they played the Chicago Bears in Week 8 of the season.