Rose-colored view of the league.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Greg Cote

MIAMI _ With the World Series a memory and the calendar turned to November, the NFL reasserts itself as King Sport _ the most popular league in the United States by all reasonable measures despite baseball's now purely nostalgic claim as America's Pastime.

Reminders of football's popularity come this week from opposite angles in terms of television alone. And we aren't even talking about the actual games and related programming beamed out over ABC, CBS, FOX, ESPN, ESPN2 and HBO. Or, for that matter, the fact NFL programming now airs in a record 226 countries and territories in 26 languages across 24 time zones.

Who knew there were 24 time zones?

No, we speak here of the league's Tuesday launch of its new NFL Network, juxtaposed with the building controversy's over ESPN's fictionalized dramatic show based on the league, called Playmakers.

NFL suits from commissioner Paul Tagliabue on down complain that Playmakers besmirches the image of the league with dark story lines such as drug abuse by players. The independence of the show, the inability of the NFL to shape or limit it, frustrates a league accustomed to being in control. ESPN won't even admit the drama is based on the NFL, only that it revolves around the world of pro football.

Uh huh. Anybody out there think Playmakers is inspired by or based on the Canadian Football League? Hands, please?