After They Went to Press, Al Davis Changed His Mind

American Express “corporate cardmembers” are busy folks, so there’s a chance some of them missed last week’s sports news. If they did, and if they follow a tip in this month’s corporate cardmember newsletter, they might be disappointed when it comes to budgeting their leisure time when in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A section of the newsletter called, “At a Glance,” includes information on population, key companies, weather outlook and . . . “Sports Teams: Baseball: Giants, Oakland Athletics; Football: 49ers, Oakland Raiders. . . . “

Trivia time: Which NFL team holds the record for being penalized the most yards in a season?

Try the Eagle model: Now that NFL Properties, Inc. has licensed an official NFL doghouse, Kevin Rolfe of Playa del Rey wonders: “Does it come with a coach?”

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: After USC’s season-opening victory over Syracuse in East Rutherford, N.J., quarterback Todd Marinovich was asked to name the high point of the trip.

Was it his 337 passing yards, for three touchdowns? No, Marinovich said, the highlight was lying in his hotel-room bed listening to “two hours of Led Zeppelin.”

Black humor: Atlanta Journal columnist Furman Bisher recently expressed his doubts about Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville’s approach to football.

“There’s something about a penalty that distresses me,” Bisher wrote of Glanville’s take-no-prisoners style, adding that he isn’t so sure about Glanville’s off-field pursuits, either--dressing in black, carrying on about Elvis, motorcycles and country music.

Bisher told of a training camp incident when rookie defensive end Oliver Barnett went down in pain, grabbing his knee. Glanville yelled: “Trainer! Trainer! Come over here, he’s hurt his feelings!”

When, indeed: Youth--and even the thirtysomething generation--must be served, but there’s a limit.

Providence Journal-Bulletin columnist Bill Reynolds prefaced a recent story on minor league teammates Tony Conigliaro and Mario Pagano with two lines from the Rodgers and Hart 1937 composition, “Where or When”:

“We looked at each other in the same way then,

But I can’t remember where or when.”

Reynolds attributed the lines to “Dion and the Belmonts, 1960.”

With everything: George Foreman’s arrival in London Wednesday for his fight against Terry Anderson next Tuesday was five days late. That was news, but Foreman’s first concern when he got there hardly distinguished him from any other American traveler.

Said the former world heavyweight champion: “The only thing missing is to find out where the hamburgers are sold in this city so I can get on with my eating.”

Trivia answer: The Oakland Raiders, with 1,274 in 1969.

Quotebook: San Francisco 49er linebacker Matt Millen, on his team’s defense: “If we play our game, we’ve got so much talent, it’s tough to beat us. That doesn’t solve anything in Iraq, but it works well at Candlestick Park on a Sunday afternoon.”