XTRA POINTS

Jose Cortez was cooped up in a Las Vegas hotel room, killing time between morning practice with the Los Angeles Xtreme of the fledging XFL and evening team meetings, and staying clear of the casino’s one-armed bandits.

“You can’t gamble money you don’t have yet,” Cortez said. “When I get bored, I just go for a walk.”

Cortez, a former kicker at Van Nuys High and Valley College, is looking for paychecks to start rolling in soon after the Xtreme opens the 10-game regular season against the San Francisco Demons on Feb. 4 at Pac Bell Park.

Until then, all Cortez or any other player in training camp with one of the XFL’s eight clubs gets is room and meals. For everything else, it’s personal cash or plastic money.

Once games begin, Cortez is in line for $35,000, the league’s base salary for kickers, and could earn more with incentives that include $2,500 for each active player on winning clubs every week.

It’s not the NFL, but it’s an easier way to make a living than roofing homes, which Cortez was doing in Corvallis, Ore., when Xtreme special teams coach Chris Allen called a few weeks ago.

“He said they were interested in me and would draft me,” Cortez said. “I was pretty excited.”

The Xtreme wasn’t taking a blind chance.

Coach Al Luginbill, who guided San Diego State from 1989-93, coached the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe the last five seasons and had Cortez on the club last season.

Cortez handled longer field goals for the Admirals, making five of seven between 40 and 49 yards. He led the league with nine field goals.

“When we had him over in Amsterdam, he was a very productive placekicker,” Luginbill said. “He consistently kicks the ball inside the five [on kickoffs].”

Cortez, 25, showed a strong right leg at Van Nuys and Valley, routinely sending kickoffs into the end zone. Most of that power, he said, came from playing soccer in his native El Salvador and later in Van Nuys, where Cortez’s family settled when he was 15.

After Valley, Cortez transferred to Oregon State and was selected All-Pacific 10 Conference his senior season in 1998. In a game that year against California, Cortez made field goals of 50, 52 and a career-best 55 yards.

“In my senior year, I was getting a lot of attention,” Cortez said. “People were telling me I would have a chance to play on Sundays.”

Nobody said it would be in Europe at first.

Cortez signed with the Cleveland Browns as a free agent in 1999, but didn’t make it past mini-camp. He hooked up with the San Diego Chargers, who placed him with Amsterdam last summer, and he spent the last NFL exhibition season with the Chargers. Despite making four of five field-goal attempts, he was cut before the opener.

“There was no way I could beat John Carney,” Cortez said. “He’s one of the best kickers around. In the NFL, you have to be in the right place at the right time. If you go to a team that has a kicker who’s struggling, you have a chance.”

With little chance to catch on with another NFL team because he was released by the Chargers late in the exhibition season, Cortez headed for Corvallis, where his fiancee lives. The two met at Oregon State and plan to be married in July.

By then, Cortez could be on his way to an NFL camp, with the XFL providing the link. But, as with every job, performance is the difference and Cortez knows it. Although he’s the only kicker on the Xtreme, too many shanks might lead to the unemployment line. Or back to the rooftops.

“He’s pretty set right now,” Luginbill said. “If Jose falters, we won’t hesitate to make a change.”

Cortez is focusing on his responsibilities instead of worrying about a potential doomsday. He is refining his skills to take advantage of league rules that require kick returners to run back everything. There are no fair catches and no touchbacks, except when the ball goes out of bounds through the end zone.

“I’m trying to be consistent and put the ball inside the five and I’m working on directional kicks,” Cortez said.

And on keeping his money away from the casinos.