Team Ruff, or Team Fluff?

The Puppy Bowl is an annual event held by Animal Planet an hour before the Super Bowl. This year’s Puppy Bowl was the 20th, and it shows.

The Puppy Bowl takes place on Super Bowl Sunday, usually an hour before the actual Super Bowl takes place. With this year being the 20th anniversary, it was instead a three-hour jamboree. Team Ruff beat out Team Fluff in a close game that led to overtime, with a score of 72-69. 131 adoptable pups were chosen this year to be in the Puppy Bowl and advertised on the Discovery Channel website, alongside several adoptable kittens shown in Temptations Kitty Skybox, sponsored by Temptations cat treats. 

The Puppy Bowl consists of two teams, in the infamous Geico Puppy Bowl Stadium on a miniature sized football field with several dog toys scattered around, as well as water bowls for short breaks. The only ways to score is to bring a toy over either end zone, or by kicking a toy, scoring a field goal. In contrast to human football, touchdowns are awarded with seven points. A human referee assesses the game to ensure there is no foul play. Several penalties include “unnecessary ruffness”, or “pass inter-fur-ence”. When a penalty is given, the pup who received it will be replaced by another from the sidelines, awaiting further playtime.

A unique feature of the Puppy Bowl includes the Kitty half-time Show, put on by a number of adoptable kittens wandering around the field. This year’s Kitty half-time Show was put on by DJ Whiskers, featuring none other than Purr-sher. During the game, two squads of puppy cheerleaders are shown when one team or the other scores. 

The winning team of the Puppy Bowl receives the convenient “Lombarky Trophy”, a stuffed toy spin-off of the famous Lombardi Trophy sponsored by Petco. This year’s winning team was Ruff, with members featuring this year’s MVP, Moosh, an Australian Shepard mix who scored two touchdowns for his team, as well as Sweetpea. Sweetpea, the tiny cavapoo, broke the record for the smallest puppy to play in the game. She was nominated as an “underdog” that we would later figure out was caused by sluggish behavior from her ailments. Sweetpea passed shortly after the Puppy Bowl premiered, and the 20th anniversary was dedicated to her. May this 1.7-pound puppy rest in peace.