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Super Bowl XL Vs. Puppy Bowl II

There were several classic games today, from the Steelers thrilling Super Bowl victory, the Lingerie Bowl and the Arena Bowl, but none could compare to the cuteness factor of the Puppy Bowl.

This year’s Puppy Bowl, the second annual, presented by Animal Planet, was a thrilling contest pitting 14 puppies, all 2.5 to 3 months old, on a puppy-sized football field, complete with a fake crowd that took pictures, a human referree that cleaned up when a puppy made a “penalty” on the field, and thrilling fights between the contestants. Seriously, there was more straight up violence in the Puppy Bowl, but it was all over stuffed toys.

I must have watched at least 55 minutes of Puppy Bowl action, in between the pregame shows and ignoring the Rolling Stones retched performance. The Puppy Bowl is a great sort of counterprogramming, the sort of thing to keep kids and the odd football-hating woman content throughout hours of Super Bowl obsession. And the puppies are so damn cute!

Anyway, some other Big Game thoughts:

• Early on in the game, I said Hines Ward would finish as game MVP. Nobody believed me. Obviously, they should have.
• Sorry, Paul Allen. You’ll get one eventually.
• They should have let the Bus rush on the last play, just because. Who would have dared tackle him, with nothing on the line?
• Moment of the night: My wonderful fiance’ screaming that Big Ben got the ball over the plane of the goal line in the second quarter. Screaming! I was so proud.
• Favorite commercial: Coca-Cola Full Throttle:

• Runner up: Degree “Stunt City”:

• Biggest waste of several million dollars: TIE: Cadillac Escalade commercial, and the halftime show
• View all the commercials on Google Video
• Okay, I may not be the only Puppy Bowl blogger, but I am the most-read one. Animal Planet should send me a DVD. Especially since I missed the halftime kitten show.
• Next year’s Puppy Bowl could use two additions: A scoring system, perhaps either judges passing out points for winning toy fights, cuteness, and penalizing for on the field “penalties”. And second, next year, all the puppies wear uniforms.

A good night, except for Seahawks fans. To them, I say, you guys played good, and you’ll be even better next year. Besides, you beat the Rams twice, so maybe you deserved it.

UPDATE: Om Malik digs in Paul Allen:

Poor Paul Allen — always the bridesmaid, never the bride. The Steelers won by exploiting the vulnerabilities in the Seahawks operating system with a defensive denial of service attack. Though the ‘Hawks often crashed on their own, with their executables throwing exceptions like offensive pass interference. Maybe Bill can buy up all the Steelers and integrate their best features into Paul’s product.

February 6th, 2006 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | General | 4 comments