This Sunday at 3 p.m., America's top dogs will lock tails on a mini gridiron for the 8th annual Puppy Bowl, a cute counterpoint to our far less adorable human Super Bowl. The big game, produced by The Discovery Channel's Animal Planet, is taped in October in a studio at Chelsea Piers. It takes two days of filming to come up with enough puppy footage to make for a compelling contest, and photographer Katie Sokoler went behind the scenes to show you how the snausages get made.
As you can see, this year's game features an "all-adorable cast" of players who see nothing wrong with taking a dump right in the end-zone (Sokoler says there's a production crew member specifically tasked with cleaning up the dog doo, which appears frequently.) Regarding this year's broadcast, the Animal Planet crew says "Meep the Bird" will tweet all the action from inside the stadium and "a piggy pep squad will 'ham' it up on the sidelines and squeal with delight for their favorite pups." And, as always, there will be a Kitten Halftime show—BuzzFeed scored plenty of shots of this year's extravaganza.
A spokesman for the Discovery Channel tells us Animal Planet worked with Petfinder.com to secure animals from 32 shelters and rescue groups representing 20 states. "Some have come from as far west as Washington, as far south as Florida and from everywhere in between including Mississippi, Vermont, Rhode Island and Kentucky," says the rep. "In years past, all of the puppies and kittens that participated in PUPPY BOWL have been adopted to loving families. We hope to continue that tradition this year with a new set of adorable animals that are ready to tumble and fumble in homes across the nation."
Here are some highlights from last year's Puppy Bowl:
And who could forget the infamous puppy streaker from Puppy Bowl V:
