There are certain mysteries of American history that gnaw at Joe. Some examples:

* What on earth was Bobby Lee thinking when he sent George Pickett’s division to a suicidal march at Gettysburg?

* What exactly was Hideki Tōjō thinking when he gave Isoroku Yamamoto the green light to bomb Pearl Harbor?

* With first base open, why the hell did Tommy Lasorda pitch to Jack Clark?

Recently in the Tampa Bay area, a riddle has perplexed Joe. Last year, the Bucs sold out every home game.  Well, sold out in theory. Some games, there were more people at Fergs before a Rays game than at the CITS.

Granted, the Bucs gave away thousands to non-profit groups and charities. Still there were blotches of empty red seats.

Yet the Bucs never had one home game blacked out last year, despite the fact a game must sell out all non-premium seating 72 hours prior to kickoff.

That’s what Joe thought. So how in the world could or did the Bucs get away with lifting the blackout of every home game when, technically, all but one home game wasn’t remotely close to a sellout?

Joe has found out perhaps how, thanks to one of the top media writers in the country, Neil Best of Newsday.

A former Giants beat writer, Best may not be quite as entertaining — close! — as the great Phil Mushnick, may not be as well-known as the now retired Rudy Martzke, but Joe does not know one media writer with better sources or a better work ethic than Best. The man is tireless at his craft!

In fact, Best, who has one of the most underrated blogs known to Joe, influenced Joe. This very site in many ways was inspired by Best’s blog, “Watchdog,” found on Newsday.com (sadly, now behind the cloak of pay-per-read).

When readers see Carmella’s lovely figure within a post about Jeff Garcia, with no mention of Carmella at all, that is a direct influence from Best, who knows that lovely lasses somehow connected to the subject of the post have a way of drawing eyeballs to a story.

And my friends, it’s all about the eyeballs!

Joe follows Best on Twitter and noticed a post this morning from Best that documented an obscure NFL rule on how teams can dance around blackout rules — for a fee — which may explain how the Bucs didn’t have a game blacked out last season.

For this and other goodies, Best agreed to an interview with Joe concerning the NFL and TV. Enjoy!

JoeBucsFan: Noticed your Tweets about NFL blackouts. The common belief is the stadium must be sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff in order for the blackout to be lifted by the NFL (sans a special order from Park Avenue giving a team a few extra hours to sell more tickets). Just to confirm from what you posted on Twitter, a home team can avoid a blackout simply by cutting the league a check covering the costs of the visiting team’s share of the gate?

Neil Best: I was not aware of this until this week, frankly, and several prominent, experienced people I know in pro football were not aware of it either. But, sure enough, it turns out a team can cut a check for 34 percent of the face value of unsold tickets to cover the visiting team share and, presto, problem solved! But the Jets insist this is a moot point because they will sell out.

Joe: What is the blackout rule for preseason games? There is nothing specific about preseason blackouts on the NFL’s media site. There is also conflicting information concerning this floating out there. ESPN.com ran a series of articles last season claiming Jacksonville would be blacked out for all preseason games (it was), yet the Bucs never came close to selling out either home preseason game, but there wasn’t a blackout. The sports director of the local NBC affiliate (which has the rights for all locally produced Bucs preseason contests) claims it is in the station’s contract with the Bucs that all home preseason games are not blacked out; that regular season blackout rules do not apply to the preseason. Can you shed some light on preseason blackouts?

Neil: Honestly, I don’t know what the rules are for preseason. I’m just speculating here, but there can’t be blackouts in preseason, can there? If there is a rule blacking out preseason games that are not sold out, all is lost for us as a civilization.

Joe: It is becoming a belief of sorts that with the saturation of HDTVs and the costs of going to NFL games and the assorted hassles involved, that fans are choosing more often to stay in the comfort of their homes and watch the games on their HDTVs. Jerry Jones has openly spoken about how an NFL game must be an event in order to get people off the couch. Roger Goodell has spoken about this subject as well. Given your contacts with various media industry giants and the NFL, has there been any discussion of the NFL making home games in individual markets available on pay-per-view?

Neil: I am not aware of the NFL having any plans to take the PPV plunge. Its contracts with the various TV networks are so lucrative, not sure what the point of that would be. There is no question that the appeal of watching at home on a big, HD screen is a huge issue for the NFL to deal with. Other sports, too. That is one reason there are four huge video screens in each corner of New Meadowlands Stadium and a monster screen in Texas. You have to give people the in-person and TV experiences at the same time these days!

Joe: David Hill of Fox Sports has stated that the NFL making more and more games available online (via various broadcast partners, NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL.com) will dissuade broadcast networks from bidding for future NFL broadcast rights. This smacks of posturing. More and more people are going to the computer, not staying away. Your thoughts?

Neil: Well, I think that will continue to evolve as an option over the next five or 10 years, but as I wrote earlier, in the short term the NFL can’t do anything to mess up its main meal ticket, which is money from the TV networks. For now, that is still the mother lode.

Joe:  Time for you to gaze into your crystal ball. What is the future of the NFL and TV? Will all games at some point be pay-per-view? Will 3D broadcasts, like HDTV currently is, be the norm? Will fans someday have a device on their remote that would mute a broadcaster yet be able to hear the sounds of the game (a handy tool when Gus Johnson is involved)? Will fans in the stadium be offered smartphone-like devices in stadiums where they can watch other games or choose their own replays of the game they attend? What do you envision NFL broadcasts to be like, both short-term and into the future?

Neil: Heavens! The answer to that is a five-part series, at least. I think all of the above is very possible and/or probable. But there is no way to predict this stuff. Ten years ago I did not think the entire accumulated knowledge of the human race would be floating around in the air of my house and available to be captured on the laptop in my basement.