Nickelodeon broadcast their first NFL game on Sunday and it was a delight.

So in case you missed it over the weekend, Nickelodeon broadcast their first ever NFL game: Da Bears and the Saints in their Wild Card matchup on Sunday. And let me tell you this, it was a DELIGHT. 10/10 would watch again. I realize that the NFL is simply trying to pull in the eyes of a younger audience, and to make their product more fun and accessible to that audience, but my guess that there were more than a few people in their 30’s without kids that were tuning in as well. Live look at me getting ready to watch slime cannons go off in the endzone after a touchdown:

They should honestly do a game a week on Nickelodeon. They should also give the Aggro Crag trophy to the winner of that game, but that’s probably a different take for a different day.

I think another reason that I enjoyed the broadcast so much was that it made all of the Bears’ foibles yesterday even funnier. Take, for instance, the Javon Wims dropped ball in the endzone. It could have given the Bears a 10-7 lead, and who knows what happens the rest of the way if he’s able to haul that in. As a Packer fan, it was already hilarious. Now let’s see a replay where the players are all Minecraft characters!

Even better and more hilarious! And the cherry on top was Mitch Trubisky winning the ‘NVP,’ the Nickelodeon MVP.

If I’m the Bears, I sign him to a massive contract extension immediately. You can’t let the NVP walk out the door after you already missed out on Watson and Mahomes. You’d never live it down!

Overall I think the idea was an A++. No doubt we’ll see more of that in the future and I am here for it.

Outside of that, it was a LOADED football weekend. The Bills got their first playoff win since 1995, the Browns boat-raced the Steelers IN PITTSBURGH for their first playoff win since 1994. Hard not to feel great for those two fan bases. Brady and the Bucs BARELY got past a WFT led by a quarterback who was a backup on an XFL team in spring, Lamar Jackson got his first playoff win, and the Rams defense dominated the Seahawks which sets up a Divisional Round game at Lambeau Field on Saturday.

On Friday, I said on the air that the matchup I thought worked most in the favor of the Packers (outside of a third matchup with the Bears) would be the Rams. An LA team leaving high temps in the mid 80’s, traveling to Green Bay to play in temps in the low-20’s feels like a big advantage. The Rams defense is #1 in the league for a reason, so I don’t think the Packers will be doing the lambada into the NFC Championship Game, but a banged up West Coast team playing a rested Midwest team with a soon to be 3-time MVP sets up nicely. Be careful what you wish for I guess, but I like the way this matchup looks on paper. I still fully expect plenty of moments on Saturday where I’m firmly clenched and barely breathing, but the Packers are favored by a touchdown and it’s a game they should win. I can’t wait for near-crippling anxiety for three and a half hours on Saturday!

PS: One of best ricochet elements of the Browns winning a playoff game last night is the fact that this is trending again today:

I honestly think this is one of the first things we blogged about more than a decade ago. As good now as it was then.