Shy Boy of Long Beach will be competing in the 15th Annual Puppy Bowl airing at noon on Sunday on Animal Planet. Courtesy photo.

The City of Long Beach had a historic football season, with a record three players being named to the NFL’s Pro Bowl (Poly alums JuJu Smith-Schuster and Jurrell Casey, along with Wilson alum Joel Bitonio). Unfortunately, no human football players from the city will be competing in this weekend’s Super Bowl, although Poly alum and New England Patriots legend Willie McGinest will be all over television covering the game.

Long Beach will, however, have a football player competing in the big game on Sunday: His name is Shy Boy, a Lhasa Apso-miniature poodle mix, and he’ll be suiting up in the 15th Annual Puppy Bowl. The popular prelude to the human game airs on Animal Planet at noon on Sunday.

And in case you’re keeping track: our guy is a starter on team “Ruff.”

When we saw that an spcaLA dog was listed on the official Puppy Bowl roster, we immediately flew into action. Sharleen Higa, Mike’s wife and the562.org’s staff investigative journalist for all things puppy-related, began calling spcaLA offices. She was eventually able to confirm that Shy Boy had been living in Long Beach’s spcaLA location, in El Dorado Park.

spcaLA put together a cool video of Shy Boy’s trip to New York for the big game.

Win or lose, his story already has a happy ending: The fluffy black and white pup has been adopted by a Long Beach family and will be joining his new home when he returns from the Big Apple (the Puppy Bowl is filmed in New York City), hopefully with some championship hardware.

It’s worth noting that this is not Long Beach’s first appearance in the Puppy Bowl, however. Back in 2010 we spotted a Long Beach Poly Jackrabbit serving as a cheerleader for the game, with the right colored pom poms even.