I didn't make the connection until the clock had hit 0:00 in Carolina, and New Orleans rookie defensive end Charles Grant was romping 34 yards to pay dirt with a fumble to hand the Panthers their 21st loss in their last 24 games.

When your mascot is a black cat, you know you're in trouble

It should have become clear much earlier, though. Like when I glanced at the team's injury report and noticed the Panthers have been struck by a bizarre rash of hernias. Or in the third quarter, when the Panthers had a punt blocked because they inexplicably used a rookie defensive end as the guard on their punt team. Or maybe later, when a game-saving pick by Reggie Howard was called back on a flag.

But when Grant rumbled into the end zone, he headed straight for Carolina's cheesy black and teal logo. And that's when it really hit me, when all this stuff going on in Carolina finally made some sense.

'Hey,' I yelled to no one in particular, 'this team's mascot is a FREAKIN' BLACK CAT!'

	30 Second Column
	Bench Marc Bulger? Are you serious? Sit the guy who took the 0-5 Rams and made them the league's most dangerous team again? Get rid of the guy who just threw for 453 yards, the guy with the 107.4 passer rating? And replace him with whom? Kurt Warner? The guy who has lost his last six starts? The guy with the noodle arm, the hurt thumb, the broken pinky, the eight picks, the one TD and the 66.4 passer rating? You go with the QB with the hot hand -- period. Just ask the WORLD CHAMPION Patriots. No? You still believe in the ridiculously romantic notion about guys not losing their starting job to an injury? Puhlease. Here's a little secret: coaches invoke that cute little rule only when it suits them. I mean, have we all forgotten how Warner got his starting job in the first place?
	The Flemister File
	Wherein we follow the exploits of FlemFile mascot and Washington TE Zeron Flemister: ZFlem hit pay dirt this week -- twice. First on Sunday when our man grabbed his first completion in several weeks against the Jags. The knee feels good. The cavities are taken care of. And Ball Coach has even let him run a few deep routes. "I feel like I'm finally starting to run as well as I did last year," he says. ZFlem then hit the jackpot again at Redskins Park on Monday which is pay day for the players. After film study the players file to the front of the facility where they sign for their bi-weekly paychecks, which represent 1/8th of their considerable salaries. Although some rookies don't realize it, they do not get paid in the off-season. Used to living off $400 a month while at Iowa, ZFlem will never forget his first NFL paycheck. "I just about fell over when I opened that envelope," he says. "And my check was smaller than most guys. It's crazy man. Your perspective about money changes in a hurry that's for sure." The NFL now has a 401K. There are union dues and, of course, the government takes out quite a big chunk. As for incentives for catches, yards and TDs? ZFlem hopes to add those to his check in the next month when the Redskins face three NFC East opponents.
	The Flem Five
	Top five rejected Chris Berman nicknames for Colts RB James Mungro: 5. James How does your garden Mungro 4. James The Island of Dr. Mungro 3. James Miracle Mungro 2. James Row Row Mungro your boat 1. James Marilyn Mungro
	WHYLO of the Week
	Perhaps if I had half a brain I would have deleted half the e-mails I got regarding my Halfway column. Scott Moquin writes, "How about your (sic) half a retard for writing such a stupid column. Go back to Clown college you moron." Stephen Kistner adds: "I have a HALF-WAY list for you. Half-Way asleep: This is what I end up being when I attempt to read your lame articles. Half-Way advanced: This is what you brain capacity is. Half-Way: Certainly explains everything about you, your writing ability, thought process and talent." Scott Davis piles on with, "It deserved Half as much attention as it got: Your column. Half-assed: Your sports writing ability. Halfway to the unemployment line: You. Half Cute: Your daughter and you dressing up for Halloween as Bono and The Edge. Hey, not Half bad: In retrospect, your column." But then, with a poetic use of profanity, Walker Schwartz comes to my rescue, "I love your sh-t." Marc Thompson writes, "All I can say is 'You my Caucasian!' Keep the File flowing." Paul Guthner says, "I probably deserve a WHYLO for admitting that before this week, I had never read your stuff. But half-way pointers was one of the funniest, most enjoyable articles I've ever read." And finally Mike Hall from MIT writes, "Not to be a smartass or anything, but I take issue with your contention that 'only a fraction of those people [who purchased flags] will actually bother to vote.' Technically, the amount of people voting out of total flag purchasers would always be a fraction." I can take the abuse. I can take the profanity, the sewage about me, my dog and my limited writing ability. But a math geek nit (or is it MIT?) picking me over a figure of speech? Not to be a smartass or anything but I have to draw the line somewhere -- and here it is: Mike, Who Helped You Log On?
	Flem Gems
	Congrats to Charlotte's 12-and-under rollerhockey fall champs: Alex and Alex, Austin, Evan, Justin, Kelsey, Murph, Sam and coach Jak. … Carolina Thought No. 1: Sat next to SI's Peter King during the game and traded stories about our daughters and our fav Eminem songs. … Saturday night I watched a guy in a blue van with a giant What Would Jesus Do? bumpersticker pull into the handicapped spot and then jog into the grocery store. … What does a hotel chain think about the intelligence of their customers when they put a sign: Please place shower curtain inside tub, on the bathroom wall? … CT2: There are so many pictures of Billy Graham lining the hallways of Ericsson Stadium you'd think this was his arena and he just lets the Panthers borrow it once in a while. … Here's what you get when you take 95% of Justin Timberlake and mix in 5% of Dave Matthews: John Mayer. … You and me, let's drop the formal ustedes and switch to tu. …  I can't rip Randy Moss for being an NFL diva and then not point out his clutch block that sprung Michael Bennett's 78-yard TD run against the Giants. … CT3: Fan sign in the upper deck reads: 700 miles in 10 hours, We Believe. Go Saints. Yeah, they believe -- in speeding. … TUNE INTO ESPN TONIGHT TO WATCH MY LIL' REDHAWKS FROM MIAMI TAKE ON THE THUNDERING TERDS FROM MARSHALL. … Denver's altitude effects athletes, yeah thanks, for the 817th time WE GET IT. … This column was written while listening to Neil Young.

Let's all just face it, the Panthers are cursed. They have to be. Last year they lost an NFL-record 15 straight games. They've drafted Rae Carruth. Their field turned to sawdust a year ago. This season, most of the players they've honored with bobblehead dolls have gotten hurt. And Sunday marked the 10th time in their last 24 games that the team has blown a lead with 5:00 to play.

"I know it's the same old song, just like Groundhog Day," says head coach John Fox. "There are reasons we why we are losing late in games. It is not bad luck, a jinx or any of those things."

Well no, actually, it's much worse than that. It's a curse. And, trust me, there isn't anything as funky and nasty as the bad voodoo of a sports curse. You don't want to anger the sports gods. Just ask the Boston Red Sox. Or the Cubs. Or the Bears. Or Ed Reed. In 1982 the Atlanta Braves took down Chief Noc-A-Homa's tent to try and sell more seats and they promptly lost 17 of their next 19 games.

Hey, all I'm saying is, if it can happen to Greg Brady in Hawaii then no one is safe. And in a league with such extreme parity, a little bad karma, a small dose of bad luck, some yin instead of yang, can be the difference between a playoff bonus or a pink slip.

So to kick-start their karma teams will do just about anything. The Jags recently hired psychologists (albeit unlicensed) to massage some melons. Teams switch up their travel and practice routines all the time in order to shake bad vibes. A few years ago the Saints had become so crippled by their curse they hired a voodoo priestess to dance around the 50-yard line with snakes and shrunken heads to exorcise the franchise's demons. (Tom Benson did not sell the team but New Orleans managed to win their first-ever playoff game.)

"When I played in San Diego we were cursed, I mean, we would just find a way to lose," says Saints DT Norman Hand. "Here in New Orleans it's the complete opposite. We can be down by 20 and we know we'll find a way to win. Things go bad for some teams, and all of a sudden they start finding ways to lose. Weird stuff just starts happening."

It's one thing to deserve to lose, like the Bengals. It's another thing to be cursed. You see, this shouldn't be happening to the Panthers. They've been doing things right for a change. Fox was a great hire. Rookie Julius Peppers is already an unstoppable force at defensive end. For the most part, the team hasn't fractured during all of this losing. "We didn't finish the game, and that's been the song for the last year and a half," says defensive end Mike Rucker. "It's an injustice that we practice so hard and continue to come up short. We can go two ways. We can just go down and let teams have games. Or we can keep fighting."

As with all curses, then, it's important to pinpoint the root of the evil. Charlotte is the birthplace of the Personal Seat License, the absurd notion that requires fans to pay a fee just for the right to buy season tickets. After spewing his filth in Wisconsin, the righteous rev Reggie White says God told him to come to Carolina and pick up a check for one more season. Maybe it's his fault.

Good guy QB Steve Beuerlein passed for 4,436 yards and 36 TDs in 1999 while playing through injuries that required eight off-season surgeries. Then the Panthers dumped him after the 2000 season. Heck, it might even be me. Since I moved to the state the Panthers have averaged 10 losses a season.

Maybe, though, it's just like in San Diego, where a young roster hasn't quite learned how to close the deal. Perhaps it's like Pittsburgh and Chicago and a host of other teams that run an aggressive, blitzing one-gap defense -- until they get a comfortable lead. Then they dial it down a notch and lose all their mo.

The Panthers need to find out what the Patriots are doing. New England seems cursed with good luck. "Something's going on, whatever you want to call it I don't know, but we have to get this monkey off our back and out of our heads," says Rucker. "We're gonna have to face it head-on, look at this thing straight in its eyes and keep going."

As he whispered those words in a silent and near-empty locker room, a teammate walked by decked out from head to toe in Boston Celtics garb, the team's lucky green clovers dotting his body like good luck talismans.

No, it's not exactly haute couture.

But it's one sure way to protect yourself against the Black Cat Curse of the Carolinas.

David Fleming is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at FlemFile@carolina.rr.com. But watch out -- you could be the WHYLO of the Week.