On Super Bowls and Puppy Bowls

This weekend marks the culmination of blood, sweat, and, oh yes, tears (Deflategate, anyone?) from months of struggle: Super Bowl XLIX.

For those of you who are interested, Wolfram|Alpha possesses a wealth of sports stats so that you can get all the cold, hard facts about the Patriots and the Seahawks.

And if you can’t wait for Sunday to get your next football fix, or find yourself suffering withdrawal afterward, VICTIV is doing very cool things with the Wolfram Language to run a fantasy sports league. Earl Mitchell delves into the step-by-step process for new users on his blog, The Rotoquant.

But some of you are probably just plain old tired of all this “Deflatriots” business and of having your television occupied by football games, news, talking heads, and commercials from September through February, because after a while, the teams start to blur together. Fortunately, with the help of the Wolfram Language, you can pick your team out of the crowd using this Graph of NFL logos we created by pulling the images from our Wolfram Knowledgebase and using Nearest to organize them by graphical similarity.

If you’re one of those who are weary of all the football hoopla, then let us soothe your soul with a time-honored and longstanding tradition of cuteness: Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl XI.

With celebrities such as Katty Furry performing in the halftime show, it promises to be the most adorable sports game you’ll watch all year. The competition will be fierce, with 57 shelter-donated puppies—all up for adoption!—fighting for the honor to be the Bissel MVP (Most Valuable Puppy).

Past MVPs have included Max and Abigail, both Jack Russell Terriers, and the last MVP, Loren, was a Brittany, a breed not present in 2015’s lineup.

It’s not unlikely that one of the eight Labrador Retrievers will take home the prize for the first time ever. Again using the Wolfram Language, here’s the breakdown of Puppy Bowl breeds:

But who knows, one of those Beagles could come out of the end zone and snatch the victorious touchdown from right under their wet noses. Are you ready for some puppy ball?