Daily Dose of Awesome: Puppy Bowl

I'm a dog aficionado. I'll come right out and say it. I also love football. At this time of year, pretty much every guy in the country is gearing up for the biggest game of the year, the one, the only Super Bowl. Despite the fact that the game is always a ratings titan, networks have still tried to put up a fight. Most fail, however, a few years ago, Animal Planet concocted a program that could very well compete with the big event. This program was an event of their own called the "Puppy Bowl".

The idea is rather brilliant in its simplicity. A group of puppies, all of whom are up for adoption, are placed in a small playpen that is designed to resemble a football stadium. Toys are thrown in and there are water bowls embedded in the floor. From there, they just roll the cameras and watch as the puppies play and do puppy like things.

It is one of the most adorable things ever made. Even if you're a cat person, I imagine that you wouldn't be able to sit through the two hour duration without being won over by the seemingly limitless amount of cuteness that these animals display.

Actually, one of the weaker aspects is the fact that they try to tie it into football too much. There is a "referee" on hand to monitor the activity and announce a touchdown every time a puppy carries the stuffed football to one end of the "field". "Penalties" are also called for various reasons, some of which employ rather bad puns.

All in all though, it is quite entertaining. Now, you would think that with a two hour runtime, that watching this would get boring. Some find this to be the case, but not me. Even if you only tune in during the commercial breaks of the football game (which I'll admit might be hard since the game is known to have some awesome commercials) you can still relish the care free innocence of puppies at play.

Now, for the aforementioned cat lovers, the Puppy bowl recently added a kitty half time show. This lets the puppies take a small break to let a group of kittens to come out and take the field. I haven't seen this, but I imagine the cuteness equals that of the puppies.

The runtime used to be three hours, but they cut it down to two. While I love puppies, as evidenced by this article, three hours is pushing it.

If you're an animal lover and want to be won over by a massive dose of adorable puppy activity, I suggest checking this event out. If you're a football fan, I wouldn't ask you to skip the game. However, I would suggest DVR'ing or TiVOing the Puppy Bowl so that you can watch it after the football game.

If you're not a football fan and are looking for something to entertain you while the others go nuts at all the crazy plays and calls, the Puppy Bowl may give you what you're looking for.

Everyone loves puppies, I mean honestly who doesn't love them? Terrorists I guess? I don't know that actually, who knows? Maybe even terrorists love puppies. Either way, puppies are awesome and creating a program that lets us sit back and watch them play is inherently awesome.

The Puppy Bowl airs at the same time as the Super Bowl, but Animal Planet tends to rerun it several times so you have little chance of missing it. It's awesome, definitely be sure to tune in.