Columnist Ron Kantowski: Fans, media set the Kelly criteria too high

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001 | 11:17 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

While cleaning up around the office in preparation for the Sun's move to Green Valley this weekend, I came across a yellowed sports section dated Jan. 6, 2000. The banner headline read "Kelly gets OK to join the Rebels."

As if that was a big deal.

Lou Kelly, it now can be said, is a one-dimensional player. He can shoot you into a game -- or right out of one -- with his rapid-fire jump shot. And he's not bashful about doing either. He's like Rambo in high-tops. He takes more shots than those stiffs Roy Jones Jr. has been fighting.

He's also proof that you can't always believe the recruiting hype.

Kelly had sensational numbers at San Bernardino (Calif.) Junior College, but then again, the cast of one of those "Revenge of the Nerds" movies could score in JC. Still, that didn't preclude most in the local media and the lost souls in the Internet chat rooms from anointing Kelly as the next Shawn Marion.

But don't blame Kelly. He seems to be a pleasant and thoughtful kid who basically is the same player he always has been. If he is viewed as an underachiever, it's only because a gullible press put him on a pedestal that he couldn't reach with a stepladder.

It had to be the first time "pansies" and "Dale Earnhardt" ever appeared in the same sentence.

It might have been more appropriate to honor Earnhardt with 33,333 tire irons.

And I mean that as a compliment.

At its current pace, the XFL may have trouble making it to the finish line of its brief 10-game inaugural season. Even some in the local media who drank Vince McMahon's Kool-Aid during the season's first weekend are now looking for the antidote.

It's coming, as March Madness is only a week away. Until then, take two aspirin and ignore the XFL in the morning, afternoon and evening.

Which, apparently, is what the Chicago media has done. Neither of its two major daily newspapers, the Tribune or Sun-Times, bothered to cover the Enforcers' home debut.

An ESPN.com poll this week asked fans for their reaction if the XFL were to fold its tent. The No. 1 answer, with an overwhelming 60 percent of the vote, was "Good Riddance."

I mean, our gated communities, private schools and shopping malls are every bit as impressive as anybody else's.

And finally, that story that was making rounds during XFL training camp, that three plays after the Outlaws walked off the field during a scoreless scrimmage the San Francisco Demons finally scored, can be confirmed.