NFL Wild Card game on Nickelodeon to feature slime, googly eyes originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
As if 2020 couldn't get any more strange, the NFL playoffs will have a Wild Card game aired on a new channel: Nickelodeon.
In an effort by the league to bring in a younger audience, a game carried by CBS Sports will be aired on the kid-friendly television station. And if you were thinking that the broadcast would be a standard NFL production just on a different channel, think again.
According to the Sports Business Journal, the Wild Card game "will have a distinctly Nickelodeon look-and-feel." That includes slime, and staple of the network, superimposed in the end zone along with googly eyes and other filters put on players during replays.
“This is going to look different than a normal CBS broadcast, and I think the NFL understands that," CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus said to the Sports Business Journal. “They really see the value. They are intent on reaching a younger audience. They think that’s where the fans of the future are. They think this is a really cool idea.”
What else the NFL and CBS have planned for the unique game is yet to be seen. Maybe the winning team dumps slime -- rather than Gatorade -- on their coach to celebrate the big victory. The Washington Football Team or Baltimore Ravens could end up in this game should the teams make the playoffs, meaning Chase Young or Lamar Jackson could get the Nickelodeon treatment.
If the league really wanted to take advantage of the dynamic, it would allow the halftime performance to be a reenactment of SpongeBob's well-known marching band display. Super Bowl 53 featured a brief nod to it, but it deserves the full treatment.
