Under the big screen: Cowboys finally get to play game in their new stadium

Cowboys finally get to play game in new stadium

ARLINGTON, Texas — Jerry Jones has often told the story about lying on the famed star logo in the middle of Texas Stadium and staring through the hole in the roof after buying the Dallas Cowboys.

Twenty years later, Jones owns a much bigger playground with a retractable hole in the roof. And he finally gets to see his team play in the nearly $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium on Friday night.

“When the Cowboys are in it, tackling and blocking and running, it’s going to be one of the real highlights of my career,” said Jones, whose team has won three Super Bowl trophies during his tenure.

The Cowboys make their debut in the NFL’s largest home venue with a preseason game against the Tennessee Titans. The stadium that can hold more than 100,000 fans hosted international soccer matches and concerts before the namesake tenant finally gets its turn.

“Yeah, it’s exciting,” quarterback Tony Romo said. “We look really forward to getting out there and competing in a place that’s obviously going to be unique, and I think it means a lot to a lot of different people, including us, and we’re going to try to make it special for everybody else.”

Also Friday night, Brett Favre is expected to make his Vikings debut when Minnesota hosts Kansas City, and Atlanta is at St. Louis.

For all the hype and excitement and national television broadcast of the Cowboys playing their first game in a new home after 37 years at Texas Stadium, remember that this is still only a preseason game. Romo and the rest of the starters likely will be done before halftime, and surely won’t be playing after that.

The Cowboys, who wrapped up three weeks of training camp in San Antonio on Wednesday, will play in the new stadium even before practicing there. Their walkthrough Thursday was at an Irving school near their Valley Ranch practice facility instead of Cowboys Stadium, where they will have an open practice next week before another game.

For most of the players, their only look inside so far was a team tour two months ago during minicamp. Now they get a chance to play a couple of games to get over the aura of the new building, and get used to what many consider the most notable feature.

“Obviously the television is something a little different, the HD screens,” Romo said. “That’s going to be something neat to see.”

Hanging over the center of the field are a pair of 75-foot high video boards, high-definition screens that stretch from 20-yard line to 20-yard line. There are also countless monitors throughout the stadium.

“I don’t think you can really miss anything in there unless you close your eyes and put a coat over your head,” Patrick Crayton said.

“The first thing I said was, ‘Man, if I could hook my PlayStation up to this thing.’ What a super screen,” receiver Roy Williams said. “My dream that I’ve been thinking about ever since that thing got built was scoring the first touchdown in that stadium.”

Even Williams acknowledged, though, that the first touchdown that will count doesn’t come until the regular-season home opener Sept. 20 against the New York Giants, the first of consecutive prime-time games to highlight the new stadium.

Dallas lost its preseason opener 31-10 at Oakland, where things got out of hand after the starting units were finished playing.

Romo and the No. 1 offense had a nine-play TD drive on which six players touched the ball on their second and final series. The starting defense held the Raiders to a field goal on the opening drive even after a 47-yard pass interference penalty made it first-and-goal at the 8.

Tennessee is coming off a 27-20 victory at Tampa Bay, where backup Vince Young threw for 131 yards and a touchdown after Kerry Collins was intercepted twice while still trying to get comfortable with new receivers.

Young, who led the University of Texas to a national championship four years ago, returns home with the chance to play the first game in the new stadium. Collins has already been to one debut at Cowboys Stadium, a concert featuring George Strait and Reba McEntire in June that was the venue’s first event.

“It’s unlike any stadium I’ve ever been to,” Collins said. “Obviously the sheer size of it is really amazing, the drop-down scoreboard right in the middle. … They say things are big in Texas. This is big. It’s really a great place, really kind of futuristic looking.”

Brett is back, this time in purple.

While Cheeseheads everywhere grit their teeth at the thought — and, on Friday, the sight — of Brett Favre quarterbacking the archrival Vikings, the folks in Minnesota are contemplating big things from the 39-year-old quarterback.

“It feels great just to have someone like that who is a legend throwing you the ball,” Minnesota wide receiver Sidney Rice said.

“It’s pretty cool to be on the same team as Brett Favre, but with that said, there is still a lot of work to be done,” teammate Bobby Wade said. “We’ve still got to be able to put a good football team on the field.”

St. Louis already has been hit by the injury bug, with quarterback Marc Bulger the most notable player sidelined. Bulger has a broken right pinkie finger.

New coach Steve Spagnuolo sees Bulger’s bad break as an opportunity for Kyle Boller and the other backups.

“There’s a silver lining to it. We don’t want to see anybody get hurt, but we get to find out about some of the other guys,” Spagnuolo said.

Atlanta coach Mike Smith said cornerback Chris Houston will miss the game with a hamstring injury. Linebacker Edmond Miles (knee), safety William Moore (knee), and defensive tackle Jason Jefferson (hip) are not expected to play, but several youngsters, including rookie defensive tackle Vance Walker, will get more playing time early in the game. Smith wants to evaluate some of the young players against Rams starters.