Man's best friend will again provide the fun and furry warm up to Sunday's Super Bowl.
Animal Planet is presenting Puppy Bowl XIV ahead of the contest between New England and Philadelphia.
The fun starts at 3 p.m.
Below are the channel numbers for Animal Planet:
Spectrum: Channel 132 (HD) and 18 (SD)
Verizon Fios: Channel 130 (HD)
DirecTV: Channel 282
Dish Network: Channel 184 (SD &HD)
>> Starting lineup
The pregame show
Joku the chicken just belted out a stirring rendition of America the Beautiful on a specially-rigged keyboard.
This is a very strange and slow puppy.
The Puppy Bowl hasn’t started yet, but we’ve already got an early favorite for MVP:
Before the, uh, game
Tom Brady is great. At some point he’s probably going to drop an impossible pass into the hands of Rob Gronkowski that makes us realize just how special a singular talent like his is.
Fletcher Cox is great. He’s a bulldozing defensive lineman who can tear holes in the fabric of time itself in order to get to the quarterback and sow chaos.
But neither one is going splash around in his own water bowl, or chew on a rope toy in a tug-of-war with a pit bull puppy, or lick the referee Sunday. And that’s why you should watch the Puppy Bowl.
Long after network television has gone extinct, leaving nothing but orphaned signals floating through space, alien species will find the crown jewel of Animal Planet’s programmings and determine Earth was indeed worth saving. For 12 hours, the network will counter-program the most-watched sporting event of the year with two-hour blocks of rescue dogs playing in a faux football stadium.
It will be the best thing you watch all Sunday, if not all year.
This year’s event will feature puppies from coast to coast and even into Mexico. Puppy Bowl XIV will bring together 39 dogs who’ve left their day jobs behind for a shot at stardom in front of a national audience.
There’s Miss Brie, a Jack Russell terrier mix from Chicago who believes Kanye West is now just coasting on his well-deserved reputation. There’s Juniper, the American bulldog who’s just looking for her ticket to get the hell out of Maine. And there’s Moonshine, the Idaho border collie who OH MY GOD HE’S WINKING IN HIS PICTURE TELL ME HE’S AVAILABLE.
So don’t even feel compelled to watch the actual Super Bowl. It’ll all be up on the internet in GIF form by 10 p.m., anyway. The one event you can’t afford to skip? The Puppy Bowl. Where else are you going to see dogs, anyway?
How to Watch
When: 3 p.m. ET
TV: Animal Planet
Online: Animal Planet GO
Starting lineups: Adorable.
How the Puppy Bowl gets made
There is nothing — nothing — on the planet more cathartic than puppies playing under the guise of serious competition. The Puppy Bowl is a brilliant creation, one far too good for this world, and also promotes pet adoption, a very worthy cause. Each year the event gets bigger and bigger, running before and concurrently against the Super Bowl, and it’s usually a much more relaxing watch.
Team Ruff vs. Team Fluff will begin at 3 p.m. ET on Animal Planet, with live streaming available via Animal Planet Live, FuboTV, or any subscription service that includes Animal Planet.
The pups will be battling it out for the “Lombarky” trophy, and there will even be a halftime show featuring adoptable kittens performing “Meow Meow Meow” as “Kitt-ENSYNC” to the tune of *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.” We can’t make this stuff up. There will be famous cats and dogs from the internet, where memes happen. Most of those memes, as it turns out, involve cats and dogs.
There is a large starting lineup of dogs, all provided by various shelters and humane societies. You can find the lineups below, though you really should click through to see the pictures.
Team Fluff
Alvin—German shorthaired pointer/Rottweiler
Ana—Australian cattle dog/Catahoula Leopard dog
Bear—American Staffordshire terrier/Foxhound
Biscuit—Chihuahua/Miniature pinscher
Blueberry Pie—Miniature poodle/Chihuahua
Buckalew—Chihuahua/Dachshund
Buttons—Cocker spaniel
Chance—Dalmatian
Checkers—American Staffordshire terrier/Chihuahua
Joy—Miniature poodle
Kaleb Junior—Chihuahua/Chow chow
Lila—Chihuahua/English toy spaniel
Luna—Pomeranian/Miniature pinscher
Mango—American Staffordshire terrier/Chihuahua
Olympia—Great Pyrenees
Sally—Treeing walker coonhound
Sophie—Poodle/Golden retriever
Stripe—Labrador retriever/German shepherd
Sunny—American Staffordshire terrier/Rottweiler
Tyler—Chihuahua/Shih Tzu
Vaughn—Border collie/Shiba inu
Team Ruff
Barry—Treeing walker coonhound/Great Pyrenees
Boomer—Chihuahua/Pomeranian
Carlo—Pug
Clyde—Corgi
Edwin—German shepherd/Rottweiler
Hannah—American Staffordshire terrier/Bulldog
J-Paw—Miniature poodle/Chihuahua
Joker—Shih Tzu/Yorkshire terrier
Juniper—American Staffordshire terrier/American bulldog
Kelly Barkson—American Staffordshire terrier/Labrador retriever
Kitsy—Shiba inu
Miss Brie—Russell terrier/American Eskimo dog
Moonshine—Border collie
Morris—Pomeranian
Mr. Wigglesworth—Shar-Pei
Peanut—Australian shepherd/Pointer
Petree—Pomeranian/Pekingese
Savannah—Bull terrier/American Staffordshire terrier
And below you can find all you need to know to watch. You should also peep the pregame videos, because why not?
How to watch Puppy Bowl XIV
Date: Sunday, Feb. 4
Time: 3 p.m. ET
TV: Animal Planet
Online Streaming: Animal Planet Live | fuboTV
How the Puppy Bowl gets made
SportsPulse: We asked NFL players which guys in the league they'd allow to date their sisters and their answers were all over the place. USA TODAY Sports
