The NFL had its first ever broadcast on Nickelodeon for the Bears and Saints Wild Card game on Sunday, and it actually was a pretty fun and entertaining broadcast, which was helpful in the first half of a 7-3 game that was anything but entertaining on its own.
Nate Burleson stole the show as the CBS studio analyst moved seamlessly into the booth with Gabrielle Nevaeh Green and Noah Eagle, offering up explanations of what was happening at the most basic of levels and also regaling the viewers with stories from his days — he equated getting tackled to “falling down wooden stairs” and explained what happens when you have a bathroom emergency during a game. However, one thing no one in the booth was ready to explain happened right at the end of the first half when the NFL brought Nickelodeon its first hot-mic f-bomb moment maybe ever as the referee explained two flags on a punt and Cordarrelle Patterson, uh, disagreed.
Cordarrelle Patterson introducing kids to a new phrase on Nickelodeon pic.twitter.com/Zp1gYmx5ff
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) January 10, 2021
I have no idea if an f-bomb has ever slipped into one of the Nick’s live action shows like All That or something, but I have to imagine this is one of the first ones in the network’s history. I’m not sure that’s what Viacom and the NFL had in mind, but it’s also rather stunning that they didn’t put the broadcast on a longer delay to try and cover up these potential issues — also, my goodness, that’s the most crystal clear referee microphone sound quality in history at the worst possible time.
They wanted to introduce a younger audience to football in full and, well, this kind of language will happen at football games. Noah Eagle’s “alriiiight” is the perfect response as he simply tried to keep it moving, but I’m sure the good folks at Nick will be getting plenty of calls and emails tonight about this one.
