FORGET ABOUT THE state budget. Forget about reforms for school funding. Gov. Ed Rendell has a different sort of goal in mind for at least one part of Pennsylvania, and he kicked off a statewide drive yesterday in Grantville to win it.

Namely, reclaiming the NFL 1925 championship title for the Pottsville Maroons.

Rendell began recruiting city councils to ask the NFL to turn over the title to the long-defunct pro team in time for Pottsville's bicentennial in 2006.

"We want to get the Maroons recertified as champions," Rendell told Democratic officials. "It's crucial to the psyche of all Pottsvillians."

Undisputed, both in Pottsville lore and NFL history books, is that the Maroons beat the Chicago Cardinals in a matchup between the league's two top teams of the 1925 season. The Maroons then challenged - and defeated - a team of Notre Dame players on the home turf of the Frankford Yellow Jackets. But playing in Yellow Jacket territory - after being thrice told not to - disqualified the Maroons for the NFL title.

"As far as we're concerned - and unless there's substantial new evidence to the contrary - we feel this subject has been thoroughly examined," said Joe Horrigan, vice president of communications for the NFL Hall of Fame.

"We're quite comfortable with the way it stands," he said, adding that Rendell's push "really wouldn't have a bearing on the matter."