In the third quarter of an overall strange game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants Sunday night in East Rutherford, a transformer at the New Meadowlands Stadium blew, causing a power outage and a seven-minute delay.
"A transformer blew, the New Jersey Sports Authority substation," said Mark Lamping, CEO of the New Meadowlands Stadium, per the New York Daily News. "The New Jersey Sports Authority substation, we get power through that. The system worked as designed. We have two lines coming into the stadium and as power shifted from one line to the second, we had a power glitch. It switched back to the original line and power was restored at about 6:15 p.m.
"During the entire period we had about five seconds when we had no power, that was when the power shifted from one line coming in to the second."
The incident was a brief but scary one for those in the stadium Sunday. The public address announcer at the New Meadowlands informed fans to remain in their seats and stand by, in case an evacuation plan was needed. Several Giants players described their reaction in the aftermath of the 33-20 Cowboys’ win.
"It was scary," said Osi Umenyiora. "In this day and age, you never know what could have been happening."
Receiver Mario Manningham said he put on his helmet when the lights went out, because in his words, "I didn't want to get hit with anything. It was crazy."
Authorities at the stadium said that there was at least one fight in the stands during the ordeal, but credited the 80,000 or so fans in attendance with remaining calm throughout--Lamping added that, overall, the amount of incidents involving stadium security was “average for a Giants-Cowboys game.”
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