Mike Segar/Reuters
Say what you will about the Dallas Cowboys’s disastrous season — and let’s face it, everyone is — but at least their new stadium hasn’t suffered from a blackout. No such luck for yesterday’s opponents, the New York Giants.
The New Meadowlands Stadium went dark twice during the third quarter of the Giants’ surprising 33-20 shellacking at the hands of the lifeless Cowboys. The power outages interrupted play and disrupted Fox’s broadcast of the game. “Pitch black stadium with a lot of people,” a Fox TV announcer said once play eventually resumed. “It’s been a weird day.”
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The official line from stadium officials was slightly less ambiguous. “Power was lost when one of the two feeders to the stadium experienced a power interruption. A second power interruption occurred to the second feeder causing a full outage. Functionality to the original feeder was restored and we are now receiving power though that feeder.”
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Though the first blackout at 6pm ET caused some players to hit the ground — well, you can’t be too careful with those late hits, especially if you literally can’t see them coming — several light banks did remain lit, which only resulted in a three minute delay of game (or in NFL terms, less time than it takes for Terrell Owens to celebrate a touchdown.) But eight minutes later, the whole stadium went dark with all the lights going out. This delay took 10 minutes before there were enough lights available to play the game (and 10 minutes later, all lights were back on.)
It transpired after the game that the coaches, Tom Coughlin and newbie Dallas coach Jason Garrett, decided to carry on after the first outage but the NFL called the shots after delay number two. And you can’t deny that there’s a certain grim irony to the fact that even when the Cowboys finally get a win, part of the achievement is shrouded in darkness.