If you’ve been exposed to any of the two weeks’ worth of media coverage leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl 50, you’ve probably heard a fair amount of sport reporters and ex-NFLers-turned-paid-airtime-fillers discussing the possible retirement of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.

But maybe Manning shouldn’t be the only one calling it quits. After 50 years, maybe it’s time the NFL pulled the plug on its most overhyped product since Johnny Manziel.

Step aside, Super Bowl. It’s time for the Puppy Bowl to be the top dog.

The Puppy Bowl, which began airing annually on Animal Planet during Super Bowl Sundays in 2005, has been a showcase for young canines from shelters across the country to dazzle viewers with an innate talent that can’t be coached: cuteness.

RELATED: Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning: Who’s the Winner Off the Field?

“Puppy Bowl in its rawest form remains true to its DNA: It’s a bunch of adorable puppies playing on a mock football field,” executive producer Melinda Toporoff, who has been a part of the event since Puppy Bowl IV, tells Upvoted.

This year, Puppy Bowl XII will feature more than 80 puppies between 12 to 24 weeks old representing 44 shelters and and rescue organizations from 25 states.

Just like the Super Bowl, you can find betting odds on the Puppy Bowl, such as the ones Reddit user rdfiii posted in the Sports Book community. But with the Puppy Bowl, you’ll never have to worry about rookie participants being sent home before the game because they were detained in a prostitution sting. Or wonder why a feisty Pomeranian wore a lucha libre mask to media day.

That's Josh Norman under there. pic.twitter.com/FfNciW8iZK — NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) February 2, 2016

Upvoted went inside the huddle with Toporoff—the Puppy Bowl equivalent to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, if you will—to see what it’s like to put together this competition each year.

How Do Puppies Make the Cut?

In the NFL, college players wanting to break in to the league go through a rigorous series individual workouts and group tryouts—known as the scouting combine—in order to try to grab the attention of a pro team.

For the Puppy Bowl, the four-legged pros-to-be need to impress only one person: Toporoff.

“What can I say? They basically just win me with their adorableness,” she says. “And I try to make sure we don’t have too many labs, too many chins, or Havanese, or border collies, or whatever. So we’re looking for diversity in terms of that.”

RELATED: What If Ira Glass, Sarah Koenig, and The Swedish Chef Were Super Bowl Announcers?

The process begins each year around August and September (the Puppy Bowl isn’t live—it’s actually taped in October) with shelters choosing a variety of puppies from their facilities. A team then narrows down the field of potential Puppy Bowlers and sends Toporoff photos of each dog next to a soda can to give an idea of the animal’s size. After that, it’s up to Toporoff to decide who makes the cut.

“It’s literally my taking a look at these puppies and saying yes, no,” she says. “And sometimes when I’m struggling, I just call in co-workers and say, ‘What do you think?’ … It’s hard to say no to any of these puppies, frankly. I wish we could have them all.”

What Makes a Good Puppy Bowl Pro?

“It really runs the gamut,” Toporoff says about the qualities that make an all-pro puppy. “We have a puppy named Wrinkles—who is a Shar-Pei—this year who really wasn’t interested in anything other than lounging on the 20-yard line. So he stole my heart just as much as another one who will have two touchdowns, whether they realize it or not, within 30 seconds. We’re open to all levels of energy and capacity to make those field goals and touchdowns.”

In fact, the canines dictate how they want to play the game in most cases. But sometimes, Puppy Bowl officials do need to employ a few motivational tricks that would make Vince Lombardi shake his head.

“We do do things where we will try to entice them, adding an extra toy, or when we try to do our starting lineups, we’ll have our Humane Society person squeaking and making sounds,” Toporoff says. “But it sorta depends on what’s going on at that moment. We try to follow the true actions of what’s on the field. And if that means it’s pretty much lounging around, we like to capture that as much as them running around like crazy little fluff balls.”

RELATED: ‘The Super Broker Shuffle’ Makes ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle’ Look Like a Mozart Symphony

The Puppy Bowl also doesn’t discriminate against dogs who might be physically limited because of a disability. In this competition, charming an audience is more important than being able to outrun a defender.

“We are equal opportunity,” Toporoff explains. “This year, we had a puppy with spina bifida [and] a dog who was lame in one leg. We’ve had dogs with hearing loss. Yes, We are definitely open to all sorts of puppies.”

Do Puppies Worry About Their Safety?

The NFL, which has been mired in controversy over how it handles head injuries, might learn a thing or two from the Puppy Bowl when it comes to player safety.

The puppy participants are examined by veterinarians before they enter the selection process and before they hit the gridiron after they’ve been chosen. An American Humane Association representative also attends the game to make sure the dogs aren’t harmed.

“We make sure they’re penned off according to size, and we don’t let more than 12 or so puppies on the field at a time,” Toporoff says. “And they run around for about 20 minutes and then usually poop out. And then we bring on the next batch. … And we don’t force our dogs to be anything but themselves. We will often swap out puppies if they seem scared, and we’re not getting any sort of action from them.”

How Has the Puppy Bowl Changed Over the Years?

Cuteness might never go out of style, but that doesn’t mean the Puppy Bowl isn’t constantly updating its format to stay relevant.

“Over the years, I’ve been privileged enough to add all sorts of elements that hopefully give [the Puppy Bowl] another fun take,” Toporoff shares. “We’ve always had the Kitty Halftime Show, but we’ve added cheerleaders [and] the national anthem.

RELATED: We Design New Logos for the 3 NFL Teams That Could Move to LA

“We added just about two years ago the idea of having two teams. We’d never done that before … [W]hen we started having more people tweeting, we added Meep the Bird, who tweets from the sidelines. So we sorta go along with the times. And we certainly give a nod to anything that was raised in the past Super Bowls. We had a blackout last year to reflect the blackout that happened [during Super Bowl XLVII in 2013]. This year, we’ll have to look out for a Deflategate scandal.”

A virtual reality component will be a part of Puppy Bowl XII, allowing viewers to use special apps and devices for a more immersive experience (unfortunately, simulated petting isn’t a feature).

All the updates, however, don’t always go as planned.

“This year, we have a streaker—a tortoise streaker—which didn’t work out so well for the poor streaker,” Toporoff says, laughing. “He was a tortoise, so he wasn’t great at streaking. He took his good, ol’ time, but of course, that was part of the joke.”

What Does Toporoff Like About the Puppy Bowl?

Attending the Puppy Bowl each year might be mandatory for Toporoff, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Are you kidding?” she asks. “No one wants to miss this.”

Although the prospect of spending a few days with a pack of cuddly puppies might sound enticing, actually producing the Puppy Bowl each year is hard work.

“It’s deceptively simple looking and just a whole lot of fluffy fun,” Toporoff explains. “It’s quite the undertaking. It’s a massive production. We collect over 72 hours worth of footage. There are a lot of logistics that actually make it quite stressful. So probably the thing I look forward to the most is being able to grab any puppy, bring them to the control room, and have them sit on my lap just to help us get through.”

RELATED: Fired NFL Coaches: Where Are They Now?

That fringe benefit does come with its hazards, though. Sometimes, it’s hard to say good-bye to the players when the final whistle blows.

“I’ve come so dangerously close [to adopting a puppy],” Toporoff says about an “offbeat looking” Japanese chin mix that stole her heart. “In fact, this year was very frightening. It almost happened. But I have a cat.”

“I tend to like the small fluffy ones,” she adds. “But that’s just my own personal bias. That does not come into play when we figure out how to cast the show, though.”

What Happens When Puppies ‘Retire’?

The end of an NFL player’s career is usually a bittersweet occasion. Just look at the pre-emptive eulogizing of Peyton Manning.

But when a Puppy Bowl player “retires,” so to speak, it’s a cause for celebration.

For these shelter and rescue dogs, retirement means adoption, and ultimately, that’s been the goal of the Puppy Bowl since its inception. In fact, all of the puppies in the event’s first 11 years have been adopted, and all but two of this year’s participants have found new homes.

“We’ve had a really good track record,” Toporoff says. “They’re quite adoptable. They’re stars. And adorable. And healthy. They’re vetted, literally, before they’re allowed on our set. They’re happy healthy dogs.”

Puppy Bowl XII airs from 3 to 5 PM (ET/PT) Sunday, Feb. 7, on Animal Planet. Repeats of the event continue until 3 AM (ET/PT).