This year was the fifty-first Super Bowl. It was also the thirteenth Puppy Bowl. What is the Puppy Bowl, you may be asking? The Puppy Bowl, which airs annually on Super Bowl Sunday on Animal Planet, simulates the Super Bowl by using puppies from animal shelters all across the country that are available for adoption.

The Puppy Bowl was first suggested as a joke, the same year that the New England Patriots faced off against the Philadelphia Eagles in Jacksonville, FL. Animal Planet was simply trying to gather more viewers on Super Bowl Sunday and decided to stick a box of puppies on a field, point a camera at them, and call it a day. However, Puppy Bowl I had quite the audience (5.8 million viewers) and a new tradition was born.

Over the years, the football game starring adorable little pups picked up speed. Soon, Animal Planet realized that the Puppy Bowl needed its own halftime show, sponsored by Bissell, and that was when the Kitten Cuties were introduced. (The kittens are also available for adoption. How wonderful is that?) This year, the halftime show featured the Chicago Rock Cats, complete with a cat on a drum set, a keyboard, and a guitar, before Kitty Gaga appeared to sing her hit song, “Puparazzi.”

Initially, the puppies were placed in a field with puppy toys and encouraged to run around and play with each other, and if a pup happened to enter the endzone, a touchdown was recorded. Usually, the puppy that scored the most touchdowns would be awarded the MVP (Most Valuable Puppy). However, a few years ago, Animal Planet decided to split the puppies into two teams: Team Fluff (yellow) and Team Ruff (green). Team Ruff had a three-year winning streak, but this year, Team Fluff was able to win and take home the “Lombarky Trophy,” a stuffed fire hydrant, while teammate Rory, a poodle/terrier mix, was named MVP.

Everything about the Puppy Bowl mimics the Super Bowl, down to a fantasy puppy football team. When the pups come out on the field, they have a sort of player overview that says their name, how old they are (between 12 and 21 weeks), what kind of dog they are, and a special sentence describing the puppy (which is made-up and an excuse for laughs.) For example, there was Alexander Hamilpup, a nineteen-week old pomsky from the Florida Little Dog Rescue, who apparently helped ratify the Animal Welfare Act. (How adorable!) There was also Slippers, a fourteen-week old pomeranian/poodle mix from a shelter in Illinois, who loves to read People Pets. (Where the Animal Planet writers come up with this stuff, I’ll never know.)

While the overall aspect of the Puppy Bowl is amazing in itself, this year, Animal Planet included three dogs with disabilities: Doobert, a deaf pup; Winston, a hearing-and visual-impaired puppy; and Lucky, a puppy who only has three legs.

The Puppy Bowl may seem silly to some, but in reality, this show makes a huge difference. It helps over seventy different puppies find “forever homes,” where they are safe, warm, and happy.