SHOWDOWN OF THE WEEK

Rob Johnson vs. Doug Flutie 1:15 p.m. SUPPORTING CAST SUPPLIED BY BUFFALO BILLS, SAN DIEGO CHARGERS

This is where Vince McMahon went wrong with the XFL. If he knew what he was doing, McMahon would have signed Johnson and Flutie off the top and scheduled them to play each other every week, kind of like the T-Birds and the Bombers in the glory days of Roller Derby.

Acrimony, pettiness, resentment, fear and loathing--this has everything you could possibly want in a football rivalry. Except, maybe, the screenplay.

Here is Johnson’s best attempt at trash-talking Flutie this week: “I don’t have to face him. He’s not playing defense. Some of his fans probably think he can play defense, but no.”

(See, if McMahon had signed Johnson right away, he could have worked with the kid, called in the script doctors, punched up his act a bit.)

McMahon also needed more owners like Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson, who in March said, inexplicably, on the record, “I’d rather beat San Diego than win the Super Bowl.”

This peculiar statement gives rise to countless follow-up questions, but just to pick one for starters: How would Wilson know?

The line: Flutie by 7.