SAN FRANCISCO - The Puppy Bowl outside Gott's Roadside cafe in the Ferry Building is a hugely popular attraction during Super Bowl week.
Spoiler alert: Puppy Bowl theme might not be about puppies this year
Thick crowds gather to watch cute canines wrestle around a fake football field.
February 5, 2016 at 10:45PM
Located outside the Super Bowl City on the Embarcadero, crowds were 4-5 people deep around the synthetic turf field complete with hash marks and goalposts.
Alas, spoiler alert, the event that will air Sunday on the Animal Planet was recorded a couple of months ago in New York.
The Chihuahua mixes on the field Thursday afternoon were three of the 80 dogs participating in the event.
The intense crowds around the "field" are quite a sight. People elbow each other to watch puppies tumble around on a field. Not exactly like seeing a unicorn fly.
This canine bowl is not so much a real bowl as an opportunity to highlight the need for good homes for rescue dogs.
Retired Hall Of Fame player Bruce Smith from the Buffalo Bills was on site discussing the mission.
The theme this year, despite the name, is adopting older dogs. "A lot of times we adopt puppies and kittens," Smith said. "Let's not forget about the senior animals that need to be adopted as well."
Smith said he had pups growing up but travels too much now to have one.
The crowd around the miniature replica field didn't thin, even during breaks between "games."
San Francisco rescue staff rotated litters of pups as a crew tired. The event has a Minnesota tie. Olson, the Minneapolis advertising and public relations firm, represents Puppy Bowl sponsor Bissell because anyone who has owned a pet knows the importance of quality machinery to clean the house.
Bissell's airing online a potentially entertaining event at pethappens.com during the Puppy Bowl.
The Animal Planet will air the Puppy Bowl at 2 p.m. Central Sunday.
On the Bissell site puppies will be aided in making a mess of sloppy joes and towers (!) of gravy-filled Champagne flutes.
For every tweet with the hashtag #pethappens, Bissell will donate $5, up to $100,000, to pet rescues.
If you're in San Francisco, the event goes through the weekend and the dogs go up for adoption Monday.
Wonder which lucky Twin Cities business will land this big game in 2018.
Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747
Twitter: @rochelleolson
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