The NFL playoffs begin this weekend, and Nickelodeon will broadcast one of the wild card games. Last year, the network aired its first NFL game in its history with the wild card playoff matchup between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints. This time around, Nickelodeon will air the San Francisco 49ers versus Dallas Cowboys matchup, and PopCulture.com caught up with Noah Eagle and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green, who will call the game for Nickelodeon with Nate Burleson of CBS This Morning. They said this year’s coverage will be much bigger that was it was last year.
“You can expect even more vivid content, and more vivid AR and virtual reality,” Green told PopCulture. “There’s going to be a huge blimp that goes around the stadium dropping virtual slime. It’s Nickelodeon, so there’s slime in our blood. There’s slime in everything that we do. So instead of the end zone, we actually have the slime zone. So it’s going to be more realistic and more visually appealing than last year, and it’s going to be more fun.”
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Nickelodeon’s broadcast of the game is more family-oriented as it gives kids an opportunity to learn more about the NFL and the game of football. This is the Eagle and Green were in the booth last year, and for Green, who stars in the Nickelodeon shows That Girl Lay Lay and All That, is taking what she learned last year and carrying into this year’s game, which will air on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET.
“My job is really to be the voice of kids at home who don’t really know about football, and teens who are interested in learning about the sports,” Green said. “So it’s Nate and Noah’s job to be the pros and the experts. My job is just to be like, ‘Hey, what do you call that play?’ Or, ‘What just happened?’ So, learning from the first year and going into this year, this weekend is going to be so much fun. I basically learned that you just have to go with the flow. You have to just roll with the punches, and that’s really what I’m best at, and I love pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and doing things that I normally wouldn’t.”
Eagle is an experienced play-by-play announced who is the radio the voice of the Los Angeles Clippers. Last year, Eagle joined CBS Sports’ college football coverage and calls select college games on the CBS Sports Network. He’s looking forward to Sunday’s game due to the history of the 49ers and Cowboys and the number of times they have faced each other in the playoffs.
“This matchup’s historic in terms of NFL relevance, and these are two franchises that are built into the fabric of the history of the league,” Eagle told PopCulture. “So, for them both trying to get back to that glory, which they’ve now missed out on for decades at this point, for Dallas, America’s team, it felt like for a large portion of this season, this could be the year for them, and it still does.”
Eagle continued: “The history is huge and everything that these two teams have been through together is certainly going to be there, and we’re going to do our best to try to let the young audience know exactly what’s at stake, and how much it does mean to both fan bases, franchises, etc. But at the same time, the precedent is absolutely massive, and for both these teams, a chance to relive those glory days, for us to take those personalities, to Nickify them, as we call it, to utilize all of the abilities that we have.”
