Otter Bowl: Furry Showdown in LBC

The Aquarium of the Pacific event brings more heart-tugs than touchdowns.

Football-themed decor and football-themed eats and football-themed events reach their zenith on Super Bowl Sunday, when everything that can be turned into a semblance of a football is, to the delight or at least amusement of everyone present. 

But there's possibly no living creature on this planet that's more delighted to encounter a football made of clams than an otter. We're going to assume that you're not having any otters over on Sunday, Feb. 7 to watch Super Bowl 50 -- may we assume that? -- but if you want to see the furry ocean mammals taking on clam footballs with their famous webby-sweet feet, then best head for the goal posts in Long Beach.

And by "goal posts" we mean the Aquarium of the Pacific, the very place where Otter Bowl II will be played on Feb. 7. And by "be played" we mean the toys'll be out, many football-themed, for the aquarium's resident otters.

Who will be deemed the Otter Bowl MVP? Early prognosticators are watching the field, which will include Charlie, Betty, Brook, and the other otters who call the LBC location home.

And by "the field" we mean the Sea Otter Show, which is where all of the football-toy action'll go down at 4 p.m. (meaning the otters'll leave their usual digs at 3:30).

And by "go down" we do mean submerged, quite possibly, since Otter Bowl involves a water element. Our whiskery friends do so love to splash about, and there's no reason that the football toys can't go in the water with them, if they so choose.

Will there be a play-by-play during Otter Bowl? You bet. An Aquarium educator will be at the mic, offering fun observances as well as informative tidbits about the life of an otter.

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Will there be snacks? Well, the otters will likely dine ahead of the big game, and not on the nachos or dip we favor (yep, they do so love clams and mollusks and such).

Are we all winners at Otter Bowl? We really are, if we get to see these delightful denizens of the drink frolic about. It's basically otters at play, with a few gnawable, push-around-able football toys in the mix. But that totally counts, right?

Right. What also totally counts is how jealous people will be when you tell them you actually got to go to Otter Bowl II, in Long Beach, live and in person.

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