Puppy Bowl ref reveals BTS secrets: 100-person crew, unseen footage — and ‘piss interference’ penalty flags

nypost.com:

“Puppy Bowl,” the annual event that happens on Super Bowl Sunday before the big game.(It will be simulcast 2 p.m. Feb. 11 across Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS, truTV, Max and discovery+.) “The most challenging part of the job is coming up with different ways to say the same thing,” Schachner, who is based in Brooklyn with his wife and teen sons, told The Post. “You know how the Eskimos have 50 different words for snow?

We have a million different ways to say ‘piss interference,’ ‘fertilizing the field.’ So, coming up with new and interesting calls is definitely a challenge.”During the Puppy Bowl, untrained puppies on Team Ruff and Team Fluff face off in a chaotic skirmish – all in an effort to get them adopted by viewers (they have a 100 percent adoption rate, Schachner said).This year’s Puppy Bowl will feature 131 dogs from 73 shelters and rescues, representing 36 states and territories.

And, for the first time, Schachner himself is even adopting a furry family member – a puppy named Whistle, who will be his assistant referee during the big game.

He said that he constantly needs to be ready for anything. “You’re watching untrained puppies on a field with chew toys. So you’re constantly being surprised,” he said. “I’ve seen dogs leap a foot and a half in the air, when I didn’t think they could.