Maybe Nickelodeon should have delayed his NFL Wild Card playoffs by five seconds. Or did producers think that microphones could not catch players cursing on the field?
The kid-friendly broadcast was nice (and in a separate article more about it), which is generally well received by fans who accept it in the spirit in which CBS intends. Slime cannons shooting on touch, pulsating green-and-orange first-down lines, SpongeBob Squarepants appearing between the stands during field goal attempts, and so on.
But just before halftime, sound on the field was a little more mature than Nickelodeon viewers (especially parents) would have liked. Chicago Bears receiver Cordarrelle Patterson was asked to be pushed outside the bounds and then run on the sidelines without immediately trying on the field again. This resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct and an unsafe TV reaction from Patterson:
Cordarrelle Patterson throws an f-bomb on Nickelodeon. pic.twitter.com/e1podNfVOC
– Josh Hill (@jdavhill) 10 January 2021
Oh, it’s an f-bomb, kids! You can not do it on television! Not a broadcast on Nickelodeon aimed at children, that is.
Neither the game-for-play broadcaster Noah Eagle nor the analyst Nate Burleson tried to explain this one, as they did with many lines and plays during the first half of Nickelodeon’s broadcast for young and perhaps first time viewers who not knowing an NFL game.
With no – or very few – fans in the stands making sporting events quieter than usual, even with a large crowd of noise, sounds on the field are picked up more by microphones near the field than they normally would. Comments from players, coaches and officials who would normally be drowned therefore make the broadcast. And they are not always suitable for the first time.
This is probably what happened here, although Patterson was close to the official that he may have been picked up on his microphone. No question whether Patterson was asked during the rest period to wash his mouth out with soap or not.