NFL NOTEBOOK : Glanville Initiates Meeting With Falcons

Jerry Glanville, whose coaching job with the Houston Oilers is rumored to be in jeopardy, met with officials of the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday to talk about their vacant head coaching job.

Taylor Smith, the Falcons’ executive vice president, said the meeting was initiated by Glanville.

“The Oilers gave Jerry permission to talk to other clubs, so he called us,” Smith said in a statement released Thursday. “We’ve wanted to talk to all qualified people, and because Jerry’s been a winner in the NFL, he fits that bill.”

Smith indicated no agreement was reached at the meeting, and said the Falcons plan to talk with other candidates.

Glanville said the meeting with Falcon officials was productive.

“We had a good talk,” he said. “We really haven’t set anything else up. Really, that’s all we’re going to say.”

The Falcons have also interviewed two other candidates: Steve Spurrier, who accepted the University of Florida’s coaching job Sunday, and Washington Redskin assistant Joe Bugel.

Quarterback Bobby Hebert of the New Orleans Saints said he’s not going away mad, but he is going away and can’t think of anything that would persuade him to sign another contract with the team.

“No chance,” he said. “My family and I have talked it over, and we’re moving on.”

Don’t count on it, said Jim Finks, the Saints’ president and general manager.

“Experience has taught me that feelings in January can change by training camp,” Finks said. “Bobby will be protected by the Saints under Plan B. If he receives an offer from another NFL club, we will have the right to match that offer or take compensation in draft choices provided for under NFL rules.”

Hebert said that he has already begun moving to Palm Springs. “I’m looking for other options,” he said.

Hebert finished the season with a 62.9 completion percentage, second only to Joe Montana’s 70.2, and he had an efficiency rating of 82.7, fourth best in the NFC and sixth best in the league.

His numbers were even better through the first half of the season, but he went into a slump and was replaced as the starter by John Fourcade for the last three games.

Signing, not trading Eric Dickerson, is one of the off-season priorities of the Indianapolis Colts, said Jim Irsay, the team’s general manager.

Irsay plans to meet with the NFL’s No. 7 all-time rusher next week to discuss a contract extension.

Dickerson is under contract for next season. He was troubled by a hamstring injury for much of the season, missing a game for the first time in his seven years.

Defensive lineman Michael Dean Perry of the Cleveland Browns has gone on the offensive about his football card.

The 6-foot-1, 280-pound tackle said that he never gave authorization for his likeness being used on a football card and has sued the Topps Co., of Brooklyn, N.Y., and the National Football League Players Assn., in Washington.

Perry, 24, the younger brother of William Perry of the Chicago Bears, asked Topps and the NFLPA to stop producing and distributing the cards, to recall and destroy any cards already printed and to pay unspecified damages and any money the company and the association earned as a result of the sale of his card.

They’re playing a familiar tune in Denver this week, the old we-don’t-get-any-respect number.

Part of that can be traced to the relatively weak play of AFC teams, none of which is held in the same regard as the San Francisco 49ers or New York Giants of the NFC.

Denver, which plays host to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC playoffs Sunday, is a major contributor to that state of affairs. The Broncos have lost twice by sizable margins in the Super Bowl. And despite finishing this season with the best record in the AFC, 11-5, the Broncos were beaten by the two best teams in the NFC East--the Giants and Philadelphia Eagles.

When Herschel Walker steps on the field at Candlestick Park Saturday, it will be the first playoff game of his four-year NFL career.

But Walker, whose only pro playoff experience was with the New Jersey Generals of the old United States Football League, is more likely to be a sideshow than the main attraction in the NFC semifinal against the San Francisco 49ers.

“For us to have success, we have to revolve our game around Anthony Carter,” Viking quarterback Wade Wilson said of the receiver who caught 10 passes for 227 yards in a 36-24 win two years ago. “We went away from that, trying to get Herschel 20 carries a game. In turn, that got us away from our passing game.”