It's an idea for a story far too unrealistic to be made into a big-time movie.

A potential football superstar battles back from an injury that could have paralyzed him for life to lead his team on to the field for its season opener less than a year later.

It would be one you could toss in a bin with a thousand other B sports movies--somewhat inspirational, but predictable and too hard to fathom.

Except this story didn't come from the mind of a languishing screenwriter. This one comes from real life.

And that's why The Football Network, a cable channel set to launch this fall, has decided to make the story of formerPenn State cornerback Adam Taliaferro into a made-for-TV movie.

Executives from the network, which will feature programming dedicated to football 24 hours per day, decided to make Taliaferro the subject of one of their first feature films after reading Miracle in the Making: The Adam Taliaferro Story by Scott Brown and Sam Cachardi.

The book details his stunning rehabilitation from a fractured spinal cord suffered in a collision with Ohio State tailback Jerry Westbrook in the Nittany Lions game against the Buckeyes in 2000.

Taliaferro was not sure if he would ever walk again, but by the time the Penn State football team opened up its 2001 season, he was able to walk out onto the Beaver Stadium grass, leading his team into its game against Miami, though he was not able to play.

"It's a very inspiring story and it's got a terrific finish," said Marty Appel, a spokesman for the network.

The network started putting the plan to do the movie into action four months ago, but just acquired the rights to do a movie on the book.

They have yet to assemble any sort of staff to make the film, but they are setting a tentative airdate for 2004.

As of yesterday, the network had still not contacted Taliaferro about the movie, but he had heard rumors about it and was surprised when told by someone in one of his classes yesterday that it was indeed true.

"It was weird to hear that," Taliaferro said. "You always see movies about other people and you never expect yourself to be part of it."

Taliaferro, who is now a student assistant coach for the Nittany Lions, will not be in the movie, but Appel said the network would be getting in touch with him very soon to consult with him.

Appel said that there is a good chance that some filming will be done on the Penn State campus.

The network, which was a brainchild of former Virginia football player Jantonio Turner, already has former Fox football announcer Pat Summerall on the payroll, and along with the movie about Taliaferro, they will also be producing a movie based on Joe Ziemba's book When Football was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL.