The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' regular-season home opener against the Cleveland Browns will be blacked out, the team announced Thursday.
"It's official," Bucs director of communications Jonathan Grella said Thursday morning, two hours before the league deadline to sell out the game and avoid a blackout.
The blackout marks the first its kind in the history of Raymond James Stadium, according to the *St. Petersburg Times*.
The Bucs' two preseason home games this season, against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Jacksonville Jaguars, also were blacked out.
Led by coach Raheem Morris and second-year quarterback Josh Freeman, the Bucs are coming off a disappointing 3-13 season in 2009 in which they opened 0-7 and allowed 400 points on defense.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
