ESPN's ''Playmakers'' series, which offended the National Football League with its frequently harsh characterization of professional football, was canceled yesterday by the network after one season.

The 11-week dramatic series examined subjects like drugs and sex on the fictional Cougars team without ever mentioning the words ''National Football League.'' Early on, the series prompted Paul Tagliabue, the N.F.L. commissioner, to complain to Michael D. Eisner, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, ESPN's parent company. Soon after Tagliabue's call to Eisner, ESPN stopped showing promotional commercials for the series during its Sunday night N.F.L. broadcasts.

ESPN defended its right to show the series and withstood a regular level of criticism from inside the N.F.L. But ultimately, ESPN decided that it no longer wanted to keep enraging the league. So it pulled the plug before any work could begin on a second season of shows.

''We proved that we could succeed in doing a dramatic series,'' Mark Shapiro, the executive vice president of ESPN, said. ''Mission accomplished. It played to men and brought in women. We showed we don't have to be as reliant on games as we have in the past.''