In a Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 file photo, Groundhog Club Co-handler John Griffiths holds the weather predicting groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, as he is surrounded by photographers.PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. – Groundhog Day coincides with the Super Bowl for the first time, but Punxsutawney Phil’s peeps don’t expect the big game to steal his early morning spotlight.
Rather, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club expects about 20,000 revelers to gather around Gobbler’s Knob when western Pennsylvania’s world-famous rodent emerges from his lair just after dawn Sunday to “predict” the weather, said executive director Katie Donald.
“We really don’t think it will be too much of a factor for us because Phil does his prognostication so early in the morning and people have all day to get to wherever they’re going to watch it that evening,” McDonald said.
The closest the game has come to coinciding with Groundhog Day was in 2009, when the just-down-the-road Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in the Super Bowl, the night before Phil’s forecast.
Sunday night’s game featuring the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., will be the Super Bowl’s 48th installment, while Phil has been predicting the weather since 1886.