It is Team Dallas, a title wholly inappropriate for two basic reasons. It is not much of a team since it doesn't play any games, and it is virtually unknown in Dallas. You won't find Team Dallas apparel at your local sporting goods store. Team Generic is more like it.

But this odd creation of the World League of American Football -- essentially, a 40-man taxi squad that supplies talent for the league's 10 teams -- isn't a sad story by any stretch of the imagination. Professional athletes practicing with gusto, trying to catch the eye of a World League scout while earning $500 a week and a room at an airport motel can only be considered a story of hope. "The attitude here is just as good as the NFL, honest to God,' said John Ralston, who has coached at the NFL, USFL and major college levels and now works with the Team Dallas players. "They come on the field and work just as hard. They want an opportunity.' Former NFL assistant coach Chet Franklin agreed. "This must be the only team anywhere that works out in pads four days a week for six weeks and never gets to play a game,' Franklin said. "But I spent 20 years in the NFL, and these kids are different. They're not overpaid, and they're not spoiled.' Tex Schramm, original president of the WLAF, said his idea for Team Dallas was borne of necessity. "It wasn't some brilliant flash or anything,' he said. "From the very beginning, the league was going to have to have players under contract, then a draft of signed players. You had to take the next step because yo u knew teams would become dissatisifed with players and players would get hurt. "We just made the decision to have a team of players practicing in Dallas with the same numbering system as the other teams and just make it like training camp.' So four days a week, about 40 players -- the number fluctuates - depending upon whose been signed and whose been called up -- pass through the door marked by the little Team Dallas sign to work out at Pennington Field.

It's a safe bet most will never star in the NFL. Some won't even make it in the World League. The realization that the road to the Super Bowl does not pass through Bedford will set in.  But others will make it. After San Antonio lost two quarterbacks, the Riders picked up Mike Johnson from Team Dallas. He led them to three victories. His success gives others reason to believe.

The workouts look like, well, workouts. They are spirited. When the defense stops the offense on fourth-and-goal at the one, there is much jubilation while cornerback Derrick Richey performs an end zone dance that would play well at Miami.   Even with no games on the schedule, the practices can be useful.  Since terminology is standardized throughout the World League, Team Dallas coaches are able to give players instruction they can benefit from when (or if) they are called up. "We like to think they're coached better here than they are with the teams,' Ralston said. "This is a great system. NFL squads notoriously start out with 47 guys, and the next thing you know they're paying 60, they're stashing players. There's no reason to do that here. This is much better, much cheaper.' This also would never work in a more competitive situation such as the NFL. Imagine the Los Angeles Raiders being asked to share their reserve squad talent with the Kansas City Chiefs. But for the World League, where the controls on salaries eliminate cut-throat competition, the system makes sense.

For Team Dallas, the highlight of the week is Thursday's half-hour scrimmage. Films are sent to every WLAF team. By the following week, some players will be gone, having gotten the call to Birmingham or Barcelona or Montreal. That will mean a return to a real team and a raise to $2,000 a week. "It's my third week here, so I'm ready to get to a new tempo, a new environment,' said Richey, a former Texas A&M cornerback. He played one game with the Birmingham Fire before being waived and landing on Team Dallas. "Everything's kind of laid back here. You just look forward to the Thursday scrimmage.' Lionel Vital, Montreal's personnel director and a former Washington Redskins player, watched Thursday's scrimmage. He was back for more Monday morning . "We've had problems in Montreal; we need football players,' he said. "I'm camping out here, living by the airport. I want to be the first guy to see these players. It gives my team an advantage.' It was Vital's team that supplied Team Dallas with forme r Cowboy Keith Jennings after making him the first tight end selected in the WLAF draft. Jennings, who later was waived by Montreal, was Dallas' fifth-round draft pick in 1989 but didn't make the club last summer. "Keith is a very talented guy, probably the most talented receiver in the league,' Vital said. "We just think it was a personality difference with the coach (Montreal's Jacques Dussault). He's an NFL-caliber tight end. I hope he can put his problems behind him. He'll probably be out of here in the next few days.' Jennings refused to talk about the circuitous route that has brought him back to Dallas. To him, perhaps it is an embarrassment to wear the star on his helmet one year, the obscure World League logo the next. - But others relish the opportunity Team Dallas provides. Take Richard Huff. London did in the eighth round of the defensive back draft but released him on Mar ch 17, the week before the WLAF openers.

He arrived in Dallas that day and has been a Team Dallas member since. "I'm one of the old vets here,' Huff said. "This gives us another chance where normally you get cut and you have to go home. You can prove yourself on the videotape, to the scouts who come through. Sometimes it gets a little frustrating because you were hoping to get picked up by the fifth week so you'd have half a season to prove yourself.' Next weekend will be the eighth of the World League's 10-week season. For Team Dallas members, the only opponent is time, and it is running out. "But you are being paid and you are playing the game you love and they are giving you a chance to live the dream,' Huff said.   Huff dreamed five years ago of being accepted to Yale. He realized that dream, graduating with a B.A. in economics and political science in 1990.

The obvious question: What's a Yale grad doing living in a Best Western outside of Dallas in order to make $500 a week?  Huff laughed. "It's the one thing I know I really want to do,' he said. "As far as any other career choice, I'm not hell-bent for anything. I'm not really gung-ho for finance or banking. Consulting would be nice, but the market's depressed right now. "Football is something that's in me. I've been playing it as long as I can remember, in the backyard with my brother, in the snow and the mud. It's one of those things that really adds something to your life.

I'm getting an opportunity here, so I've got to take it.'.  Conquering Wall Street can wait. You never know when the phone in your motel room will ring and the Frankfurt Galaxy will be offering you a chance to live that dream.