Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had a largely nonsensical rant on Sunday regarding the impact of the sun on his football team’s ability to win games. Buried at the bottom of his colorful language is a salient point.
Everyone knows where the sun is. Everyone knows, or should know, the time period that the sun will be a problem.
It requires proper planning by the head coach. On Sunday, the Cowboys won the coin toss. Coach Mike McCarthy opted to receive. He could have deferred the option and, after the Eagles chose to receive, opted to defend the west end zone — knowing full well that, by the second quarter, the sun would be in the eyes of the receivers looking back toward the ball and the team moving toward the east end zone would have to deal with the sun.
Of course, it still puts the coach at the mercy of the coin flip, since the coach who wins the coach flip can manipulate when the sun will or won’t be an issue for his team.
That said, the entire issue underscores the reality that Jones cares more about making things look good than winning games. He wanted the sun to come through the end-zone windows as it was setting. He didn’t want the field to run north and south. He wanted it to go east and west.
It was stupid, from a football standpoint. It was brilliant, from a “how will it look on TV?” standpoint.
