NEW YORK (AP) — The annual “Puppy Bowl” turns 20 this year, well over middle age in dog years. But does the sheer cuteness of it really ever get old?
“Who doesn’t want to watch dogs play all day long?” asks Laurie Johnson, the director of Florida Little Dog Rescue in St. Cloud, Florida, who has been part of “Puppy Bowl” for a decade.
There are some changes this year to the canine football telecast: Four previous puppy players return to be inducted in the new Puppy Bowl Hall of Fame and the show, which has grown to include armadillos, hedgehogs and chickens, will focus on dogs.
“What we’ve done this year to flip the whole script is because it’s sort of a celebration of the fact that it’s the 20th year,” says “Puppy Bowl” referee Dan Schachner. “We’ve decided to go all in on puppy, making it the “most puppiest ‘Puppy Bowl’ ever.”
The “Puppy Bowl” made its debut as counter-programming to the Super Bowl in 2005. Dogs score touchdowns on a gridiron carpet when they cross the goal line — any goal line — with a toy.