Just got the official word from the Jaguars that Sunday's season-opener against the Denver Broncos will not be blacked out.

Tickets still remain for club level seats and a limited number of bowl seats, but they are close enough to lift the blackout. Both Jaguars preseason games were televised as well.

This is pretty significant for the Jaguars considering nine of 10 games, including two preseason games, were blacked out last season.

It'll be a big storyline to follow all year. This game is expected to be a bigger draw because of the return of Jacksonville native and former Gators' star Tim Tebow.

Players know that.

"They'er coming in and the place will be sold out because of Tim Tebow," Maurice Jones-Drew said. "We all know that."

Jones-Drew was asked if the Tebow-mania annoyed him and he said that it didn't. Linebacker Justin Durant praised Tebow when asked about him, but said he didn't pay attention to the excitement at the hometown guy's return.

"He's a great quarterback," Durant said. "He can run the ball and do a lot of things with it. There's a possibility we might see him."

What ended with an Arlington man dead in police custody early Monday began as an altercation between roommates who were longtime friends.

"I told him it was time for him to move on and move out," Jeff Chandler, 43, said of David Talbert, who was unemployed and had been living off and on in the East Pine Summit Drive home owned by Chandler's uncle.

At first, Talbert, 54, took the news well, Chandler said Monday. "I thought everything was OK."

But that changed in a hurry, when Chandler said his friend of 30 years suddenly attacked.

"He tried to rip my eye out of my head; he smashed my head into the cabinets and came at me with a butcher knife," Chandler recalled as he sat on his living room couch. He had a badly bruised right eye and his face was marred with nicks and cuts.

Chandler said he managed to free himself and make it to another part of the house, where he holed up until police arrived, responding to neighbors' 911 calls.

Chandler said he heard officers arrive and did his best to restrain and calm Talbert.

But minutes later, a detective approached the battered roommate with the bad news.

"Your buddy didn't make it," he said.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office confirmed Talbert died shortly after officers arrived at the home about 1:45 a.m.

Police said Talbert became violent with officers and went into medical distress after being restrained. Officers administered CPR and called paramedics.

The suspect was taken to Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Chief John Hartley said it appeared officers did nothing wrong in the incident, which remains under investigation.

Chandler agreed, saying Talbert's "poor health and the excitement" likely caused him to go into cardiac arrest.

He added that his friend may have been under the influence of a powerful painkiller. "He has a prescription for OxyContin and he abuses it to death," Chandler said.

Jim Ramsey said Chandler, his nephew, has been through difficult times in recent months, including surgery related to diabetes.

Ramsey, who was visiting from Tennessee on Monday, said Talbert had once been an excellent carpet layer but had been unemployed for some time and living in the home with Chandler rent free.

"It's just a sad deal when it has to come to this," Ramsey said.

Chandler spoke compassionately about his friend, saying the man seemed disturbed the day before the attack.

"Yesterday morning, he said, 'I'm going to hell tomorrow,' " Chandler recalled.

"I said, 'That's nothing to joke about'."

"He said, 'That's just how I feel.' "

Times-Union staff writer Nicole Hernandez contributed to this report.

jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4310