The NFL made its debut on Nickelodeon on Sunday as kids were subjected to the misery that is Chicago Bears football as Noah Eagle, Nate Burleson, and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green called the action from New Orleans as the Bears faced the Saints in the Wild Card round.
Coming into the game we knew Nickelodeon’s general plans for the game but seeing it in action was really something to behold. It didn’t take too long for us to get our first slime appearance of the game, as the Saints got an early touchdown from Drew Brees to Michael Thomas and the virtual slime cannons did their thing.
SLIME CANNONS! 🤮
📺: #CHIvsNO on NICK pic.twitter.com/Z9ZkYy5N3r
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) January 10, 2021
They also did some player to Nickelodeon character comparisons that were, well, a bit of a stretch but produced some very funny graphic side-by-sides.
ALVINNNN pic.twitter.com/fYZn8m2dWt
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) January 10, 2021
Not your average player comp pic.twitter.com/s0SWUHqdSq
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) January 10, 2021
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) January 10, 2021
As they cut to commercials, they would put wacky filters with burger hats and googly eyes on players.
The Nickelodeon NFL broadcast is going all out with their graphics 😂 pic.twitter.com/ZjJXVtCHVz
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) January 10, 2021
The best part of the game was the performance of Nate Burleson, who at one point in the game was asked by Green what players do when they have to use the bathroom during the game and did his best to answer it in a G-rated manner.
https://twitter.com/NotScTop10plays/status/1348389290435366915
There was also the NVP award that they had a fan vote for that turned disastrous in the fourth quarter when Mitch Trubisky was leading the voting by a healthy margin while down 21-3 with 107 yards passing.
Who's taking home the first ever NVP (Nickelodeon Valuable Player) Award? pic.twitter.com/iYPzvr658h
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) January 10, 2021
Kids finding out how John Scott made an NHL all star game pic.twitter.com/69c7a5qM8T
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) January 11, 2021
They also brought in rules analyst Young Sheldon to explain various penalties to the dismay of many on the internet.
They got Young Sheldon explaining false start!pic.twitter.com/y7jmwcSFJn
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 10, 2021
It was quite the broadcast, which many will remember as “the time Nickelodeon had its first ever F-bomb air,” and we’ll have to wait and see if it had the intended effect of bringing in a younger audience, but for a game that was dreadful from start to finish, having something different to watch was a welcome respite from having to deal with the Bears offense sans slime and googly eyes.