After five grueling months of tweaking your lineups, pilfering from the waiver wire, cursing game-time decisions, and eventually finishing dead freaking last in your fantasy football league, Sunday offers a shot at redemption. From the frozen tundra of Lambeau field to the sizzling bleachers of Sun Life Stadium, all eyes will be on the big game. The battle for the whole enchilada. The final tilt for all the marbles.
Yes, Puppy Bowl XII is nearly here. And for the third consecutive year, you can draft your own Puppy Bowl fantasy team. It works pretty much like you’d think it would. You pick any three dogs. You get seven points each time one of them scores a touchdown, three points each time one of them kicks a field goal (Don’t laugh. It’s happened twice.), three points each time one of them steals the ball, and two points every time one of them makes a tackle. You get docked two points each time one of them is flagged for a penalty.
Click Here To Watch Puppy Bowl 2016 Live Streaming
Yes, Puppy Bowl XII is nearly here. And for the third consecutive year, you can draft your own Puppy Bowl fantasy team. It works pretty much like you’d think it would. You pick any three dogs. You get seven points each time one of them scores a touchdown, three points each time one of them kicks a field goal (Don’t laugh. It’s happened twice.), three points each time one of them steals the ball, and two points every time one of them makes a tackle. You get docked two points each time one of them is flagged for a penalty.
Click Here To Watch Puppy Bowl 2016 Live Streaming
Like any fantasy football game, there’s much intel to parse before locking in your lineup. We’re not talking raw stats here. All of the participating puppies are between 12 and 20 weeks old, so there isn’t much performance data to go on. But as the Puppy Bowl enters its 12th year, some best practices and big patterns have emerged.
Look, all these players are adorable. You’ll be tempted to just pick the three cutest pups on the draft board and call it a day. That’s a one-way ticket to loserville. If you pick solely on cuteness, please join my fantasy puppy league so I can pick up an easy win against your bozo squad of micro-hounds. Certain breeds are built for the big game. Others are built for lounging at midfield or falling asleep next to that goal-line water dish. This isn’t a napping contest, it’s a championship football game for tiny dogs. Respect the process.
Four of the 11 Puppy Bowl MVPs have been terriers or terrier mixes. Two of them—Puppy Bowl I MVP Max and Puppy Bowl IV MVP Abigail—were Jack Russell terriers. No other breed has more than one MVP under its collar. That makes Darby, the lone Jack Russell playing this year, a must-draft. You may even want to stack your squad full of terriers, which is a pretty solid strategy. If that’s your plan, Miss Sassy and Timon are on the board, too.
Three dogs have scored four touchdowns in a single Puppy Bowl: Henry (an English springer spaniel mix), Falcor (a clumber spaniel), and Aberdeen (an Australian shepherd mix). There are no clumber spaniels or Australian shepherds in this year’s draft pool, but Ranger is an intriguing pick. He’s a 16-week-old springer spaniel with a Rob Gronkowski vibe.