If you love football, you can’t wait for Super Bowl Sunday. However, if you prefer four-legged cat-letes, it’s Su-purr Bowl Sunday that you’re looking forward to as the third edition of the much-loved Kitten Bowl is being held.

Kitten Bowl III – which premieres Feb. 7, at 12 p.m. ET, on the Hallmark Channel – has four teams competing to become the champs of the Feline Football League (FFL): Boomer’s Bobcats, North Shore Bengals, Home & Family Felines and Last Hope Lions. The 100 purr-fect players were selected for the big game because they were all looking for their forever homes, which they have now found thanks to the Hallmark Channel, North Shore Animal League America (the nation’s largest no-kill animal shelter and animal adoption organization) and Last Hope Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation (a not-for-profit dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of death-due pound, stray and abandoned animals).

Animal advocate, television presenter and author Beth Stern returns as the host of the extra-special program (the wife of Howard Stern is also the national spokesperson for North Shore Animal League America). Joining her is former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason as the FFL’s Commissioner and play-by-play announcers Mary Carillo (an award-winning sports analyst) and legendary sportscaster John Sterling.

“It’s an entertaining, cute show,” said Sterling, the longtime radio voice of the New York Yankees, in an exclusive interview with Headlines & Global News. “This is going to be the best of all three of the Kitten Bowls!”

To learn more about Kitten Bowl III and Sterling’s love of furry creatures, read his entire interview below.

You’re back for your third year as a color commentator for Kitten Bowl. How did you first get involved?
A few years ago, the CEO and president of [Crown Media Family Networks, which owns the Hallmark Channel], a fellow named Bill Abbott, and I became friends. He’s a Yankees fan and listens to every game, no matter where he is, on one of his apps. He said, “I’d like you to do something for me,” and it was the Kitten Bowl. It’s fun, and the production is so great that they make it into a pretty good show.

Do you help come up with the fun names for the kittens since you are so great at choosing catchy nicknames for all of the Yankees?
A few of them, yes. But I would say the production company did most of them. I can’t tell you how many times I had to say, for this one, “Ben Rothlis-Purr-Ger” and “Howie Long Hair.”

How long does it take to record your commentary?
I think we did it in two sessions – they were long sessions. They tape the kittens, and they then model what we say to what they do. There’s no question about it, the biggest part of this is the production of putting the things we have to say along with the kittens’ antics. It’s a lot of work for the production company and they do a heck of a job.

Did any of the kittens get into catfights during the game?
No. Isn’t that interesting? They’re running around very happy after all the different balls and [toys] that we put on the field and trying to scale the walls of the Hallmark Channel Stadium. It’s cute.

With so many kittens on set, where do they keep all of the litter boxes?
Well, you know what? I hadn’t thought of that. Probably in the locker room they have a litter box area. [Laughs]

One of the goals of Kitten Bowl III is to promote animal adoption.
That’s the thing that we do that is great. It’s led by Beth Stern, who has a great love affair and affinity with these animals. We get in a lot of “plugs” to adopt these kittens. When you see those kittens running around on the screen, they’re so cute. Almost every family would want one. It’s my understanding that, every year, all the kittens that are on the screen get adopted.

Why is Kitten Bowl III better than Super Bowl 50?
Well, I would never say that. I watch the Kitten Bowl, but then I’ll be at a friend’s house [later to watch the Super Bowl]. I watch every game in every sport.

Who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl?
I actually think Carolina is going to win – if you’re 17 and 1, you’re there for a reason. But, like everyone else, I’d like to see Peyton [Manning] go out a winner. So I’m going to root for Denver.

Which animal is better: a bronco or a panther?
The panther is pretty fierce and, obviously, they’re beautiful cats.

What pets do you have in the Sterling household?
We have both a cat and a dog. Our eldest daughter really wanted a kitten, so we got her one maybe nine or 10 years ago, and Stormy’s grown up in our household. The dog, Kahlua, seems to like the cat, but the cat doesn’t like the dog very much.

Kitten Bowl III premieres Sunday, Feb. 7, at 12 p.m. ET on the Hallmark Channel. Visit the show’s official website and Twitter page for more information.