NFL extends ticket-sale deadlines

— -- The Cincinnati Bengals, Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts all were granted ticket-sale deadline extensions from the NFL on Thursday.

The Packers joined that list after they came up about 3,000 tickets short of selling out 80,750-seat Lambeau Field for Sunday's NFC wild-card playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers.

A Packers spokesperson said the league gave them until 5 p.m. ET on Friday to sell the remaining tickets and avoid a television blackout in their home market, which includes both the Green Bay and Milwaukee areas.

The Packers began the week with 40,000 tickets available.

The Bengals have until 4 p.m. ET Friday to sell the remaining tickets to Sunday's first-round AFC playoff game against the San Diego Chargers.

Late Thursday afternoon, there was no official word as to how many Bengals tickets were left. The team's Twitter account accidentally floated the number 3,500 before being quickly deleted. Team officials later said they weren't able to provide an exact figure, only noting that it was low enough for an extension to be granted.

Many of the Bengals tickets purchased Thursday came from local businesses that are planning to donate them to local military families. By the end of business Wednesday, Bengals director of sales and public affairs Jeff Berding said about 8,000 tickets remained.

The NFL gave the Colts a second extension to try to sell their remaining 3,000 tickets for Saturday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs to avoid having it blacked out in the Indianapolis area.

The Colts have until 4:30 p.m. ET Friday to sell their remaining tickets. The Colts have sold out 137 of their past 138 games.

Information from ESPN.com Colts reporter Mike Wells was used in this report.