It looks like the Lions are going to be blacked out for the first time this season on Sunday. After selling out the first two home games of the season, the Lions are 10,000 tickets away from a sellout for the Redskins game.
Detroit has until 1 p.m. on Thursday to reach a sellout and avoid a blackout, but obviously they're not going to sell 10,000 tickets in less than 24 hours. The best hope for the Lions is to sell enough tickets by tomorrow afternoon to get close to a sellout, which would allow them to receive a 24-hour extension on the deadline. That's what they did for the first two home games, but only 3,500 and 4,500 tickets were available when the extensions were granted. With 10,000 left for Sunday, an extension appears highly unlikely.
What a great way to celebrate Halloween, right? Your team is playing after a week off and the franchise quarterback is returning after missing almost all of the season because of an injury. But because of a rule that is beyond stupid, people in the local area won't get to watch it.
I'm not going to bother ranting about how dumb the blackout rule is because I've done it plenty of times before, so I will just say this: Hopefully the Lions will win on Sunday just like they did last year when the game against the Redskins was blacked out. It will suck not to see it win or loss, but a win would certainly make me forget about how pissed I am at the NFL.