Are you ready for some football? No? Maybe you'd prefer the Puppy Bowl

If you're not terribly invested in the Super Bowl, you're not alone -- and Animal Planet wants to help you get through the day with your sanity intact. To that end, they're airing the 5th annual Puppy Bowl, billed as the "ultimate puppy showdown."

The Puppy Bowl, which features adoptable puppies participating in vaguely football-type activities as they battle it out for the title of Most Valuable Puppy, also includes other highlights based on that other sporting event with "Bowl" in its title.  The National Anthem will be performed by a parrot named Pepper, and a halftime show will star kittens doing what they do best: being adorable.

Puppy Bowl referee Andrew Schechter says, "I think we all have a calling. Some of us are firemen; some are policemen. I am a ref. I referee little, cute, adorable puppies pretending to play football for people's enjoyment. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it."

Harry Kalas, best known as the voice of the Philadelphia Phillies, will give the play-by-play.

The Puppy Bowl will air on Animal Planet this Sunday at noon Pacific time.

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Last year's Puppy Bowl.  Credit: David S. Holloway / Getty Images.