The Super Bowl is much more than a major sporting event. Areas of the economy reap huge benefits. Some 36 percent of Americans consider football as their favorite game. Each year, about $185 million are spent for home parties, merchandise and Super Bowl memorabilia. For hosting the Super Bowl, New Orleans reaped an estimated $434 million.
And yet there are some folks in the United States who work very hard at staying away from the Super Bowl.
While the nation's most-watched game is played, a cable television station offers a different competition -- "
The Puppy Bowl." The four-legged athletes are turned loose to play their game -- a fieldful of puppies running aimlessly around a football-style field while chasing toys, their tails and each other.
Perhaps the most interesting fact around the Puppy Bowl is that people actually watch the program. The show has become an annual event on Animal Planet network.