The most exciting game of the year takes place on Sunday, February 11. That’s right, Puppy Bowl is celebrating its 20th anniversary! (Hey, that’s like 140 years in dog years.) Oh, and for Taylor Swift fans, Super Bowl LVIII (that’s 58 in regular numbers) is happening that very same day.
If you’re planning to root for Team Ruff or Team Fluff and the Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers, here’s what to expect for Puppy Bowl—and the dog commercials to look for in that other Bowl.
Puppy Bowl XX
To celebrate its 20th year, Puppy Bowl XX will have the most players ever—131 puppies from 73 shelters and rescues. And hopefully, if it’s like the previous 19 Puppy Bowls, each and every one of those adorable little guys will already be in forever homes by the time the big game airs. Yay!
Puppy Bowl XX also features the following for the first time ever:
- Its tiniest competitor, a 1.7-pound Cavapoo (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel/Toy Poodle mix) named Sweetpea, and its biggest, a 70-pound Great Dane puppy named Levi. (No, these two will definitely not be on the gridiron at the same time.)
- Puppies with special needs. Among them are Mr. Bean, a two-legged Papillon, and Riddle, a Pug mix with a neurological condition that causes coordination problems.
- An assistant referee, appropriately named Whistle. The Bichon Frise mix just happens to be the foster dog of referee Dan Schachner.
- The debut of the Puppy Bowl Hall of Fame, with the induction of four players from previous games.
Puppy Bowl XX airs on Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS, truTV, Max, and Discovery+ at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific on February 11. If you miss any of it, there will be reruns on Animal Planet throughout Super Sunday. Go Team Ruff! Go Team Fluff!
Super Bowl LVIII Dog Commercials
Good news: After being inexplicably absent last year, those gorgeous Clydesdales are back in Budweiser’s new “Old School Delivery” commercial. Not only that, but the ad also features an adorable yellow Labrador Retriever who helps the horses deliver beer in a snowstorm! If you want to watch it again and again, here you go.
Tissue (Box) Alert! The “Tails of Hope” commercial for Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, N.Y., is filmed from the point of view of therapy dog Hawk, a beautiful Golden Retriever. If this line—”They call me a therapy dog, but honestly I just feel like one lucky pup”—doesn’t make you reach for those tissues, you just ain’t wired right. Here’s a sneak peek in case you don’t want others to see you sobbing.
Swiftie Bowl—er, Super Bowl LVIII kicks off on February 11 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern/3:30 p.m Pacific on CBS.
Photo: Anheuser-Busch