Add this to the Arizona Cardinals' list of impressive accomplishments: On Saturday they beat the previously undefeated mojo of the 'Pants Off For The Panthers' movement.
Here's Fort Mill, S.C. housewife and Carolina Panthers fan Julie Maloney with an unidentified friend (Julie's on the bar), the inventor of No-Pants Sunday. About three years ago, Julie discovered that, whenever she watched a Panthers game on television while not wearing pants, the Panthers won. This never failed. So earlier this season she started a web site, Eye of the Panther, and urged others to go "pants off for the Panthers." And it caught on.
"I'm from upstate New York, but became a Panthers fan because of my husband," Julie told the Charlotte Observer recently. "The staples of a football game in our house. Without getting into too much detail, one thing led to another. And then we started to notice that the days I was without pants, Carolina would win. That year, we went to the Super Bowl. The night of the big game I wore jeans because my friend watched the game with us. Carolina lost."
And when she says no pants, she means it; Julie goes commando. From her web site, an entry dated Dec. 15:
When the game was just about over I said, 'You watch, we're about to get another touchdown' and seconds later we did. It was reminiscent of our glory days. We had beer. We ate chips and salsa. We did not wear pants. This week, Delhomme was BACK! He and Smith were on fire. I'd like to formally go on record saying No Pants Sunday is NOT an easy job. I'm in Upstate NY visiting family, which is why I've been MIA for the past 2 days. Flying alone with a toddler and a baby is EXHAUSTING.
The only games the Panthers had lost in the past two years are ones in which Julie either forgot to take her pants off, or didn't watch the game at all.
"Obviously I can't go to the stadium to see a game," she said. "We have a home theater, the walls are blacked out, and we just watch the game by ourselves."
This past Sunday, the pants came off. But somehow, Kurt Warner and company prevailed (did Julie somehow not go pantsless? Does anyone have answers??). Anyway, she has not been heard from since Carolina's 33-13 loss in Glendale.
And today a lonely pair of pants flies at half-staff in front of the Maloney home.
No-Pants Sunday [Eye Of The Panther]