Sunday afternoon’s Chicago Bears vs. New Orleans Saints NFL Wild Card playoff game was broadcast on the children’s TV network Nickelodeon–and it was weird.
The broadcast featured a variety of special graphics, including the network’s trademark slime pouring down on the field (virtually) after touchdowns, while slime was also used to project the first-down marker on the field. During field goal attempts, meanwhile, SpongeBob’s face was projected between the goal posts.
There was also a Minecraft-y segment where the Bears and Saints players became block-y athletes in what was one of the stranger sequences during the evening.
The broadcast itself featured All That! actress Gabrielle Nevaeh Green in the booth, sharing her thoughts on football as a newcomer to the sport. Throughout the early stages of the game and later, the play-by-play announcers were telling Green about the rules of football, informing her–and the wider audience of presumably younger viewers–about how the game is played.
It seems the NFL is trying to reach a younger audience with the Nickelodeon broadcast. Whether or not that was successful remains to be seen–you can read GameSpot editor Mat Elfring’s thoughts on that below–but what we do know for sure is that the broadcast led to some excellent memes and commentary on social media.
Internet Reacts To NFL On Nickelodeon
“Nickelodeon Should Have More Football”
GameSpot’s entertainment news editor, Mat Elfring, is a lifelong Chicago Bears fan and he shares his thoughts on the over-the-top game below.
The January 10 Wild Card game between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints was bound to be a rough one for one team (I’m a lifelong Chicagoland native and Bears fan, and I know how the playoffs typically go for us). Up against an offense with many different weapons (Brees, Kamara, Thomas, and a couple other high-profile WRs and RBs), I wasn’t expecting to really enjoy the game–as my faith in the Bears this season was a rollercoaster of pain and excitement. However, the way Nickelodeon presented and broadcast this event was unique, innovative, and the perfect way to bring football to a new generation.
Much in the same way the original 2001 run of the now-twice-defunct football league the XFL changed the way the NFL presented the game–as the NFL adopted the sky cam and putting mics on players on the field–maybe the NFL could learn a thing or two from how Nickelodeon broadcast the game.
The primary target for the game was obviously kids–those not as familiar with the game–and because of this, there was a lot of explanation about the ins and outs of what is undoubtedly a complicated game of strategy. On occasion, when a flag was thrown, Young Sheldon would pop up and explain what the penalty means. Throughout the game, the commentary team would also explain the rules, and drill school metaphors into your brain ad nauseam. By the time I heard the 50th reference to taking tests and checking your answers as a way to explain a QB reading the defense, I may have been rolling my eyes, but this was a great way to reach younger viewers who may not have ever watched a football game.
Better yet, maybe explaining some of these rules during a nationally televised game from time to time may help reach new fans. They don’t have to do it for every play, but maybe explain what a neutral zone infraction means once, since that’s bound to happen at least three times a game. Or maybe play a laugh track when the ref announces a penalty for illegal touching–is this too far?
Then, there was former NFL WR Nate Burleson on commentary. Someone please give him a full-time job doing this. He injected a lot of fun into the audio presentation. The moment where he talked about having to urinate during a game and what you have to do is weirdly one of my favorite moments of the game. A lot of the commentary was super-light and not hyper-analytical, which made watching the game a lot more entertaining.
As for the visual elements of the game, during field goals, SpongeBob Squarepants popped up between the goal posts and after a touchdown, there was CG slime everywhere. Was this silly and juvenile? For sure. Did I love it? Of course. It made the game a little bit more exciting, and while fans should be excited enough to just watch this game, who doesn’t love a little extra CG? Obviously, you don’t need the cartoonish antics if you’re bringing this over to CBS, Fox, ESPN, or Amazon Prime, but throw some stats up there and the team colors for the field goals and some confetti or CG pyro for the touchdowns and that’ll be perfect. Or maybe put a cartoonish “censored” stamp and horn honk over Cordarrelle Patterson’s mouth when he says, “What the f***” on national TV.
Football is a complexed sport and a bit more nuanced than “grab the beefy boy holding the ball.” There are a lot of rules, and frankly, the traditional broadcast doesn’t spend a lot of time explaining key aspects of the game, like “What is the Tampa 2 defense and why do the Bears use it?” Many current fans have gotten their football knowledge from one of two places: watching games week after week or playing a whole lot of Madden. The connection between football knowledge and video gaming is undeniable for many younger fans, and the Nickelodeon game leaned a bit into that–especially with a couple of replays of big plays styled like Minecraft/Roblox. It’s a smart move to grab the attention of younger viewers who typically don’t really care about football.
What we all learned about the Nickelodeon NFL wild card game is that Nickelodeon should have more football on it. It doesn’t hurt the NFL in any way–as the wild card game was also airing on CBS and Amazon Prime–and it reaches a younger audience who may be watching a football game for the first time. And if we want to keep football popular for the next generation, this is the perfect way to introduce them to it.
