Jordan Stout Goes Jumbotron Hunting At AT&T Stadium
Penn State football will wrap up its 2019 season in this year’s Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium — the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and, perhaps more importantly, one of the most impressive jumbotrons in American sports.
The Nittany Lions have practiced at the stadium during each of the past two days. Naturally, kicker Jordan Stout used its notoriously-huge jumbotron as a target for his booming right leg.
AT&T Stadium’s center-hung scoreboard weighs 600 tons (or roughly 1,200,000 pounds) and takes up a total of 11,393 square feet of space above the field. It set a Guinness World Record in 2009 as the world’s largest high-definition video display, and it’s certainly been hit by its fair share of flying footballs since the stadium opened its doors.
Stout may or may not have been aiming for the big screen with his trifecta of boots, but some pro-level punters probably wish it wasn’t there. In 2014, Cowboys punter Chris Jones hit an absolute bomb that was destined to pin the New Orleans Saints deep in their own territory, but a bad bounce off the jumbotron set up the Saints with prime field position.
The big board has also blocked a pair of punts in preseason action — once by AJ Trapasso of the Tennessee Titans, and another by Jones. A certain star punter who plays for Penn State just might have a chance to join those players in football folklore on Saturday.
The NFL sent out a memo saying that any punt that hits the scoreboard must be re-kicked when the stadium opened 10 years ago. Actually enforcing that rule, however, requires the officials to see the ball hitting the big board — and Chris Jones’ 2014 punt proves that hitting the board *can* have tough consequences on the kicking team.
The 2019 Cotton Bowl Classic between No. 10 Penn State and No. 17 Memphis is slated to kick off at noon eastern on Saturday. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
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