Why Nickelodeon Should Absolutely Air More Sporting Events!

Though it seems like we just got it back, Football Season is officially coming to an end. Playoffs have begun, and soon enough, we’ll be watching what will likely be the oddest Super Bowl in history.

Sadly, the Chicago Bears won’t be there. The team saw a one-and-done performance in the playoffs, losing to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, January 10. In a first for the NFL, the game was simulcast on both CBS and Nickelodeon. Naturally, CBS was a traditional broadcast, but the Nickelodeon feed was… well, it was an adventure. But it was the best kind of adventure.

If we’re being honest, Bears games weren’t exactly fun to watch this season. (And I write this as a Bears fan.) But thanks to Nickelodeon’s slime cannons, watching the Saints make it to the endzone didn’t sting as much!

Would it have been cool if the slime cannons were real? Absolutely. But we can acknowledge the potential dangers of slime football. (But, you know, maybe one day...)

Then of course, there was the Spongebob uprights.

Not only did our favorite fry cook add a layer of silliness, but it was actually surprisingly easier to see if the ball made it through the goal posts. So really, Nickelodeon was just putting the “fun” in “functionality”.

But perhaps the best part of Nickelodeon’s broadcast of the Bears/Saints game was how accessible it made the sport. Throughout the game, players and scenarios were compared to characters and situations that have been seen on Nickelodeon shows. The Saints’ playoff performances in the last few years were likened to Josh Peck taking on his rival Mindy in a science fair on "Drake and Josh". At one point in the second quarter, something reminded someone of what would happen if Ned Bigby and Billy Loomer from "Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide" got into a weightlifting contest. And honestly? The analogies all worked. And for fans who knew both the teams and the shows, the analogies were hilarious.

The same method applied to the rules of the game. Even the most basic rules of football were regularly explained. Sometimes the explanation came from the commentary staff, sometimes it came from Young Sheldon.

For longtime football viewers, this part likely felt elementary, if not even a little condescending. But these moments weren’t for the lifelong football fans. These were for the kids who watch the games with their parents and for the friends who go to watch parties and simply pretend to know what’s going on. And these explanations likely went a long way toward helping these people understand and actually enjoy the game.

But there’s one thing above all else that young fans watching the Nickelodeon broadcast got to see during this football game that they likely won’t see on a typical NFL broadcast any time soon. They got to see a young woman as part of the commentary crew. Granted, for almost every NFL game, there is a woman on the gameday announcing crew. She’s just usually the sideline reporter we check in with at halftime and occasionally for game breaks. But Gabrielle Nevaeh Green, a 15-year-old Nick star, was actually up in the booth with her male cohosts. She was obviously new to the sport, so she wasn’t exactly calling the play-by-play, but she was still given the opportunity to offer up her thoughts on what was going on. It was rudimentary, but it was enough. Now young girls watching the game have someone to point to and say “I want to do what she does.” They now know that it’s possible for women to be up in the booth.

So really, we should be simulcasting every NFL game on Nickelodeon from now on. Give them baseball too! Maybe they can even make golf interesting! This was a big moment for sports and sports fans. Let’s use it as a launchpad.