
Tampa, Cincinnati Push NFL Blackouts to 19
CINCINNATI (TheStreet) -- Get that Cincinnati Bengals fan or Tampa Bay Buccaneers follower in your life DirecTV's (DTV) Sunday Ticket package, a Comcast (CMCSA) - Get Report or Cablevision (CVC) subscription complete with the NFL RedZone Channel or EA's( ERTS) Madden '10 as a holiday gift, because that may be the only way those poor souls will see their team play a home game on television for the rest of the year.
Despite Bengals wide receiver
too-little-too-late offer to buy up his team's remaining tickets for their matchup against the defending NFL champion New Orleans Saints, Cincinnati fans will have to sit through their second-straight local TV blackout of the season after 57 consecutive sellouts. That's little more than a brownout for Tampa fans, whose Sunday home TV blackout against their division-leading rivals the Atlanta Falcons will be their sixth of the season.
These two teams are the poster children for NFL blackouts this season, with each representing sides of the argument fans have been making since the season began. The Bengals --- much like the Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions earlier this season --- are being blacked out largely because they're awful. A team that boasts a solid-though-somewhat-fragile quarterback such as Carson Palmer and two egotistical but explosive wide receivers such as Ochocinco and Terrell Owens is supposed to be a lot better than 2-9. Now head coach Marvin Lewis' job is in jeopardy, Ochocinco's future with the team is in doubt and 2010's Super Bowl dreams will likely end in an unrecognizable 2011 team.
The 7-4 Bucs, meanwhile, won't be seen on television at all this season despite being very much in the NFC playoff hunt and still having a chance -- albeit a shrinking one -- of winning the NFC South outright. Much as fans did earlier this season in San Diego, however, the Bucs faithful is staying away from
Raymond James
(RJF) - Get Report
Stadium for largely economic reasons. Tampa area unemployment remains in the double digits and the blackouts have not only failed to draw fans to home games, but have driven Tampa bars to stream the game from the Internet and forced die-hards to board buses and watch games miles outside of the blackout radius. Winning may have helped the San Diego Chargers avoid a blackout against the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, but it won't prevent Tampa fans from going an entire year without a televised home game.
For those keeping track, these two blackouts will be Numbers 18 and 19 for the NFL this season. With the NFL needing only three more blackouts to match last year's total of 22 and these two teams looking good for at least four more on their own as Weeks 14 through 17 loom, the league should consider listening to both sides of the fans' blackout argument. Deserved or not, empty seats and lost viewers make lousy holiday gifts.
-- Written by Jason Notte in Boston.
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Jason Notte is a reporter for TheStreet.com. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Esquire.com, Time Out New York, the Boston Herald, The Boston Phoenix, Metro newspaper and the Colorado Springs Independent.









