TV blackout in Detroit can't dampen excitement of a rare Lions' victory

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Empty seats at Sunday's Lions game led to a television blackout in Detroit. AP

Each week, SI.com's Richard Deitsch will report on newsmakers from the world of TV, radio and the Web.

After a morning tennis match with some friends in Southfield, Mich., Scott Bell listened to the first half of the Lions game while driving back to his apartment in Royal Oak. The 23-year-old was like most other Detroit football fans yesterday: Nervous as hell and unable to watch the game on television because of the blackout. Bell pulled off the highway to stop at a Burger King during the second quarter, but the tension of the game was so great he refused to get out of his 2008 Saturn Aura until halftime.

"I didn't want to turn off my radio to order in case I missed something," said Bell, a sports Web producer and writer for the Detroit Free-Press.

Like most Lions fans living within 75 miles of Ford Field, Bell lived yesterday's game through the radio and the words of Lions play-by-play announcer Dan Miller and analyst Jim Brandsteter. Forbes Magazine recently dubbed 2009 The NFL's Blackout Year and the league has experienced three blackouts in three weeks, including the Jacksonville market in Week 2, and Oakland and Detroit on Sunday. The NFL blackout rule mandates that a game must sell out within 72 hours of kickoff or it won't be televised within 75 miles of the stadium. Last season, nine of 256 regular season games were blacked out in the home team's market, according to the AP, but that number is likely to increase drastically this year. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told a handful of national NFL writers three weeks ago that as much as 20 percent of the NFL's games this season could be blacked out in the home team's local television market.

About 15 miles south of Royal Oak, as Bell listened intently to the second half on a couch in his apartment, Miller was feeling the tension himself inside Ford Field. He has called Lions games since 2005, but as the game got deeper, he knew this was no ordinary game. "I can't imagine what guys go through calling the final drive of the Super Bowl," Miller told SI.com late Sunday night. "I guess what was running through the back of my mind was, 'There is just no way this could end in catastrophe. Man, this just can't end the wrong way.'"

It did not. The Lions held on for their first victory in 20 games and Miller's game-ending call (which I heard thanks to Sirius Satellite Radio) was excellent:

Three receivers to the right side. They'll flood the right. The Lions showing three down linemen. [Jason] Campbell out of the shotgun. Fourth-and-10. Eight seconds left. Campbell back, throws underneath. It's a hook and lateral and they get it to [Ladell] Betts, and Betts is going to be taken down. It's going to be a first down but it doesn't matter. Three zeros on the clock. Game over. Losing streak over. Nightmare over. The Lions win it, 19-14!"

Dan Feldman, a 21-year-old reporter for the Flint Journal, listened to the radio broadcast from his home in Flint via the Internet broadcast of of 97.1 The Ticket. "The call after the game ended gave me goose bumps," Feldman said. "The Lions haven't played in many big games in my lifetime, but this was one."

Miller said he received 12 texts immediately after the game as well as a handful of calls from friends and family around the country. Making the 25-mile drive to Ford Field from his home Sunday morning -- he is also the sports director for the local Fox TV affliate -- he admitted he was thinking hard about what to say in the event the Lions won. The broadcaster wrote out something at the end of last season after Detroit became the first team to finish 0-16 in the regular season.

Said Miller: "I did not write anything out in long form on Sunday but in my mind these were the three things that were happening: You were winning a game, you were ending a streak and you were putting that whole nightmare behind."

Miller said he did not feel more responsibility or pressure because of the blackout but he was certainly cognizant of it. He is one of a handful of NFL radio play by play announcers (including Brian Sexton, who calls Jaguars games, and Greg Papa, the voice of the Raiders) who will surely be heard by a larger audience this year. But given the ignominious 19-game losing streak, Miller might not call a bigger game in 2009.

"For the coaching staff, the players, management, and the fans, a victory is just going to allow them to start life again," Miller said. "It's a new beginning. It doesn't mean the Lions are back and contending but a lot of that negativity goes away from awhile."