San Diego Chargers receive 24-hour extension to lift Monday Night Football blackout

The National Football League has granted the San Diego Chargers 24-hour extension to lift the local television blackout for Monday night's nationally-broadcasted game between the Chargers and the Houston Texans on ESPN.

If the team is not able to sell enough tickets to qualify for a sellout by Saturday evening, Southern California will not be able to watch the live broadcast of the second Monday Night Football game in Week 1 of the season.

Of course, that won't happen. The Chargers won't let Mike McCoy's first regular season game as Head Coach be blacked out locally and ESPN won't give up the Los Angeles market for the "late" MNF game, because that's where most of their ratings will be coming from for this game. Even if the team isn't able to sell a single ticket, they and/or ESPN will work together to buy what's left to ensure that the game is on local television.

As per usual, this is a scare tactic to sell tickets. Every time the league grants a 24-hour extension, the game is magically sold out and not blacked out. This most likely means that the 24-hour extension comes with an agreement that the team will buy whatever tickets remain to avoid the blackout, but would like the chance to scare a few fans and save a few dollars in the process.

So, rejoice Chargers fans. The team will not be embarrassed by a local blackout of their Monday Night Football home opener.