Three-legged Doberman Pinscher rescue dog out to win it all in Puppy Bowl XXI

This Super Bowl Sunday, forget Patrick Mahomes and Taylor Swift.

The real top dog — at least, for some animal lovers — will be Maxx, a three-legged Doberman Pinscher from Las Vegas who is out to fetch canine glory in Puppy Bowl XXI.

Maxx was dumped at an animal shelter last year, probably by a breeder who deemed him “unsellable” due to a malformed front leg, which the shelter was forced to amputate, according to the Nevada SPCA.

Now, the plucky pooch will join 142 other rescue dogs in Discovery’s annual showcase, in which rescue pups from around the country will “compete” on a miniature football field while their human counterparts make dog piles in New Orleans when the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Philadelphia Eagles.

A shelter staff member drove Maxx 2,500 miles to a New York TV studio to record the paw-stigious event, which aims to raise awareness for rescue animals.

The spotted spectacle — which had more than 13 million viewers last year — features two squads of rescue dogs (“Team Fluff” and “Team Ruff”) chasing balls, toys and one another as human referee Dan Schachner calls “penalties” for infractions like fighting (“unnecessary ruffness”) and pooping on the turf (“excessive fertilization”).

“We named him Maxx after Max Crosby from the Las Vegas Raiders,” Nevada SPCA director Lori Heeren told The Post. “Maxx Crosby has been very open about overcoming challenges in his life, and our Maxx has also had to overcome challenges.”

Heeren said the person who surrendered Maxx to the shelter claimed to have found him on the street. But the pooch was clearly a purebred, and staff spotted other Dobermans in the owner’s car — suggesting Maxx was yet another victim of the illegal puppy breeder market in which slightly flawed, “unsellable” animals are killed or abandoned.

Last year, an LA Times investigation found that truckloads of black market dogs were being trafficked to the Southwest each year from eastern puppy mills looking to make a buck by circumventing restrictions on the dog trade.

Even in Clark County — where Maxx was surrendered — hundreds of unlicensed breeders openly flaunt local ordinances and peddle animals on Craigslist, Heeren said.

She hopes Maxx’s appearance on the national stage will help fight the stereotype of shelter dogs as unsightly mongrels.

“People think they’re all pit bulls and chihuahuas, or they’re broken and aren’t adoptable, but if you were to come into our shelter today, we have a pub puppy, two German shepherds, a Chow Chow. This shows people you can find wonderful dogs in the shelter,” she explained.

But before Puppy Bowl Sunday, Maxx won the big prize: The SPCA staffer who drove him to New York would later officially adopt the pup.

“He and his wife just fell in love with him. We all did,” Hereen said.