Celebration in the air, pants on the ground

Oh, when one of the Saints celebrants goes marching in without his pants.  (Courtesy:  Fox-TV)

If you're anything like me (and my condolences if you are), you can't get that "Pants on the Ground" "American Idol" song out of your head these days.

But that's no longer my biggest worry.  My greatest fear is that I've been watching way too much television lately.  And because of that, I keep seeing -- against my will, I might add -- grown men with their pants down. 

TV's vast waistland?  (Courtesy:  NBC-TV)

The first time it happened was Oct. 18.  The wife and I were watching the weekend edition of the "NBC Nightly News" as a gaggle of frenzied reporters and photographers rushed the Balloon Boy hoax house in hopes of getting a get a word with Balloon Boy dad Richard Heene, currently in the slammer but insisting at the time that no hoax had occurred.

As you can see from the accompanying photo that ran under the blog headline  "NBC 'cracks' balloon boy hoax case," either Joe the Plumber was free-lancing on the story or a photographer cared more about the shot he was getting than the shot the photog behind him was capturing.

The off-putting image was only on NBC's national telecast for a fleeting second or two.  But thanks to DVRs and the ability to rewind and pause, NBC was caught, so to speak, with its pants down.

Sunday night, as the New Orleans Saints gathered on the field to celebrate their overtime victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC title game, another fleeting image grabbed my attention.

Take a close look at the photo above.   Specifically, focus on the lower right corner of the photo.  See the guy in the gold sweatjacket? 

Bingo!  Pants on the ground (pants on the ground) and underpants clearly on display as Saints celebrants get down.

Hopefully, this will be my last "pants-down" dispatch.  Maybe it's the critic in me, but I'm going to try to segue into more of a casual TV viewer and save my sharpest observances for the big screen.

Also, it would help if you guys out there would, you know, be a little more pants diligent and keep 'em up.