Gentlemen, Start Your Puppies

Want your fill of barking, chewing and indiscriminate pooping that doesn't involve a night out with Najeh Davenport? Then gather your Scooby Snacks and settle in for Puppy Bowl IV; the only part of Super Bowl Week that lives up to the hype. The starting lineups were announced this morning, and once again it looks like anyone's ballgame.

Most of these puppies look like trouble, but if anyone is going to raise the bar of puppy mayhem, it's probably going to be Bruin, the Alaskan Malamute. Look for at least 17 penalties from this puppy in the first quarter alone. And J ack the Mini Dachshund looks like he'd chew up your Super Bowl tickets without thinking twice.

But my favorite aspect of the Puppy Bowl (Sunday, 3 p.m., Animal Planet) is always the fine reporting of the event at Planet Haystack, which always treats it as, well, its Super Bowl. A snippet from last year's coverage:

Look ... it's this simple: Whichever puppy dropped the fleece squirrel into the water bowl at the two-hour mark of PB 3, well ... that puppy should've been flagged, ejected, suspended and fined. The Bowl Cam gave the viewer conclusive evidence that the puppy toy "went for a swim." It was an obvious penalty — and there should be outrage over such a flagrant foul. There's no room in the game for that. The game's growth depends on it.

Secretly, Eli Manning is more interested in this game as well.

Meet The Puppy Players [Puppy Bowl IV] MVP of Puppy Bowl III = The Puggle? [Planet Haystack]