Blog Focus: Chad Ochocinco Saves Cincinnati Bengals fans From Blackout
Blog Focus is Technorati's daily roundup of the top stories as told by the bloggers of the world. Each day five posts, no matter how popular or nascent, will be selected by editors to portray a general unscientific reaction to discussion points around the 'Net.
NFL games getting blacked out in local markets is a familiar theme this year. People can't afford to go to games, are more comfortable at home, are apathetic to sucky teams, etc. Plenty of reasons for the decline.
This weekend, the Jacksonville Jaguars will have their third straight game blacked out locally and have a very real chance of having no home games televised locally. The Oakland Raiders have had two straight blackouts and several other teams have had local fans not be able to see home games this year.
But the best story comes out of Cincinnati, where the 4-1 Bengals nearly had Sunday's game blacked out, until wide receiver Chad Ochocinco teamed with Motorolla to buy the remaining tickets. He's also giving them away for free to fans at the stadium.
Here are some of the reactions in the blogsphere, both to Ochocinco's gesture and to the continuing NFL blackouts:
The Sporting Blog: "Clearly, the performance on the field should have fans in Cincinnati excited about the team. So maybe there's another reason for the lack of attendance — like, perhaps, the 10-percent unemployment rate in the metropolitan area. And as we've learned, the NFL really doesn't care about you, unless you show up. Or buy the Red Zone channel. Or purchase the Sunday Ticket package. Or, I'm sure, just cut a check directly to Roger Goodell. That might avoid the blackout, I guess"
Inside the Oakland Raiders: "The Raiders game Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles was officially declared a blackout, failing to sell out 72 hours before kickoff. It was the Raiders’ second consecutive blackout and 71st since the team returned to Oakland in 1995."
Continued on the next page
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