For the first time since the Monday Night Football game against the St. Louis Rams in 2005, the Detroit Lions have reached a sellout for a preseason game. The Lions announced on Tuesday night that they have sold out Saturday's game against the New England Patriots, which, like the Rams game, is going to be shown on national television.

CBS is set to broadcast Saturday's Lions-Patriots matchup, and because it is a sellout, the game will be shown live in all local markets. That means there will be no blackouts and the game will not be shown on tape delay this week.

By reaching a sellout, the nationally televised CBS broadcast will also air in the local television markets (Metro Detroit, Lansing, Saginaw/Flint and Toledo), including WWJ-TV CBS 62.

Considering just two years ago the Lions could not even sell out most of their regular season homes games, it's impressive that they managed to sell out a preseason game. Obviously an attractive matchup with the Patriots and it being a national game greatly contributed to the sellout, but it's still impressive nonetheless.