No Blackout for Bengals-Texans? Ocho Says He's Teamed Up with Motorola to Ensure Sunday Sellout (Free Ticket Update at Bottom of Page)

If you're a poor Cincinnatian who can't afford Bengals tickets and you were wondering how in the name of Boomer Esiason you were going to watch the Houston game this Sunday, worry no more.

At 1:05 p.m. on Twitter, our favorite outgoing receiver, Chad Ochocinco, announced that he's teamed up with Motorola to purchase the remaining tickets. There were believed to be about 2,000 left for Sunday's game.

The Bengals went on an all out blitz this week trying to sell tickets. On Monday morning the Bengals ticket office said there were about 7,500 non-premium seats left for Sunday's game.

Wednesday evening, operation "sell tickets or die" continued. Bengals all-time leading scorer Jim Breech hosted a conference call with Marvin Lewis, Ochocinco, Dhani Jones, Ray Maualuga and Andrew Whitworth. Over 13,000 Bengals fans listened in at some point during the hour long call.

By Thursday at 1 p.m., only 3,000 tickets were left. Because the Bengals were able to sell 4,500 tickets in three days, the NFL granted the team a 24-hour extension, a privilege usually reserved for clubs that are only 1,500 tickets short of a sell out.

Under normal circumstances, if an NFL game is not sold out within 72-hours of kickoff, it is not shown on local TV. If a team is close to selling out, the NFL will grant the team a 24-hour extension to sell the tickets. The Bengals had until 1 p.m. today to sell out the game.

Official word of the sell out is not expected from the Bengals until 4 p.m.

Again, no official announcement has come from the team. INSIC puts the sellout at 90-10 percent. We don't think there is anyway Chad would put his fun loving reputation on the line if the sell out wasn't going to happen.

Here's how we think the city should reward Chad, the next 85 kids born in the Greater Cincinnati Area should be named Ocho, Cinco or Awesome-O.

*Update* Cincinnati Enquirer beat writer Joe Reedy has confirmed the sellout with Channel 12 and the station now has a story up on their site.

*Update 2* Just when this story couldn't get any more ridiculously awesome, the Bengals official website announced at 2:35 p.m. that Motorola will be giving away 1200 free tickets to the game, per the website:

"The Bengals, Local 12 (CBS affiliate WKRC-TV in Cincinnati) and Motorola worked together to ensure the blackout would be lifted. As part of this plan, Motorola will give away 1,200 tickets (600 pairs of tickets) to Bengals fans for free, starting at 11:30 am Saturday at the North Ticket Office (next to the Bengals Pro Shop) at PBS. Motorola is a long-time sponsor of the Bengals and has a newly aligned partnership with Ochocinco."

Wow. Tomorrow's INSIC headline, "Riots hit Cincinnati for second time this decade."

Bengals-Broncos on Verge of Not Selling Out, Crazy Tailgate Contraptions May Not be Used

As the clock ticks toward 1 p.m. Friday, it's looking more and more like the Bengals will not sell out Sunday's home opener (there are over 4,000 tickets left. Usually a team must sell out by 1 p.m. Thursday, but the Bengals were granted a 24 hour extension).

What does this mean for you, the loyal Bengals fan. This means that if you live within 75 miles of Cincinnati, the game will not be on in your market.

And yes, this includes you, you sneaky Lexingtonians (KY) who thought you might get the game. You're considered a Bengals market which means one thing (cue the soup nazi), no Bengals game for you.

What it comes down to is this, the only way you're going to be able to watch the game is if I set up a slingbox at my house in Atlanta (If you're like 97 percent of the country and don't know what a slingbox is, click here, basically, I can send my Directv feed to your computer.)

Although I should note that the NFL this morning partially waived the black out rule. To most Bengals fans, this news is on par with hearing that Andre Smith only partially ate a fried twinkie dinner last night (The good news: Andre didn't eat the whole meal. Bad news: Smith is still eating fried twinkie dinners. Good news: NFL partially waives blackout rule. Bad News: You still can't watch the game live.)

The NFL will now rebroadcast each game on NFL.com for free, beginning at 12:01 am Monday (Sunday night if you will). So if you're one of those people that has no TV, no computer, no cell phone, no pager and no friends that will spoil the outcome of the game, then this is perfect for you.

Oh there is one more thing, Bengals owner Mike Brown could do what Falcons owner Artur Blank did last season: drop ticket prices $10 for the game, have sponsors buy 1,500 and sell any remaining season tickets in the top deck for $300. But that would make too much sense.

By the way, since my NFL picks won't be up until Saturday, my prediction for tonight: the team I hate more than Hitler 20, Titans 13.