Noisy XFL is a sight to behold and an experience to be had>Upstart has reason to think positive

That the XFL has implanted itself firmly and painfully in the side of the sports establishment was never more clear than the night David Letterman needled Marv Albert about it. "Holy cow!" said Dave in his best mock-eager voice. "What about the XFL? Are you doing XFL games?" Letterman knew what the answer was. Albert works for NBC, one of the owners of the new football league, yet the notion of the veteran sportscaster calling XFL games was about as ludicrous as suggesting that Albert doff his toupee right then and there. "No," Albert said, chuckling. "Bob Costas and myself were told that we would not have to deal with the, ah, the XFL." With that Dave eased up on his old pal Marv, as both men enjoyed another little slap in the face at NBC one of many slaps the network has taken in the media for associating with the XFL's hillbilly flea circus. It was an odd sight: Albert, a serial back-biter whose sexual exploits landed him in criminal court not long ago, now occupying the ironic high ground above the XFL. Laugh while you can, America. For if the truth were told, XFL co-owner Vince McMahon's gladiatorial googaw is really no worse off than the handful of other made-for-TV sporting leagues over the years that survived, thrived and finally rewrote the history books. Remember the American Basketball Association? In fact, the ABA was a gypsy caravan of clubs that, between the league's inception in 1967 and its absorption into the NBA in 1976, moved from city to city and owner to owner until just five teams were left to stagger across the finish line. The management and ownership of the Kansas City Chiefs are saying mostly positive things about the XFL, and unlike Marv Albert, they seem to mean it. Good idea. Over at Arrowhead, they surely know how much the XFL has in common with the nascent American Football League whence Lamar Hunt's Dallas Texans (now the Chiefs) sprang. In his book Supertube, Ron Powers writes that the AFL "was a 'studio' sport in that practically no one watched it, at least in its early years, except on television." Like the XFL, the AFL tweaked the rules to "open up" the stodgy play of the NFL. Like the XFL, the AFL's talent was considered well below that of the NFL. Like the XFL, the TV network that carried AFL games also came in for ridicule: ABC, then as now the Mickey Mouse network, only more so. But five years into the AFL's existence, NBC got tired of losing out to CBS for the rights to NFL games and offered the AFL about four times the amount ABC was paying for the right to show its games. Shrewdly, Hunt and the other owners split their TV jackpot, ensuring the league's survival and leading to the AFL-NFL merger and the Super Bowl. Yes, the XFL is economically expeditious. Give its founders credit for knowing the score sheet pales next to the ledger sheet. NBC and McMahon know the only difference between a laughingstock and the next addition to the pantheon of American sports is the goodwill of a select few fans, notably the people who buy advertising time. And they also know this: If, someday, the XFL's name is added to the Book of Life, the authors of sports history will compose florid paeans to its early years, glossing over the fact that a washed-up wrestler named Jerry Lawler was once its No. 2 color commentator, hooting and hollering at the gyrations of XFL cheerleaders. Time will erase the memory of XFL announcers reminding us incessantly that each player on the winning team would "walk away with $2,500 bucks" (woo hoo!), leaving the losers with only their meager base pay, so that dozens of young men called the Enforcers, 0-and-2 after a bitter double-overtime defeat in Orlando, returned to frigid Chicago and told their wives and young children that no, Daddy said the thermostat had to stay at 60 for another week. The XFL's ratings are down considerably from its debut week, but NBC still has a good chance of making advertisers happy by season's end. If so, the network may be on its way to a new Sunday afternoon franchise - and Marv Albert will be on his way to calling football games again. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com >>>