Football in July, With a Story Line : Raiders: Ex-49ers Lott and Craig suit up against their former team in today’s exhibition game at the Coliseum.

First, there aren’t supposed to be professional football games played in July, certainly not one with a story line so rich that two forlorn heroes, cast adrift by their former team, would be asked to draw daggers against their old mates the first time out in new armor.

Today’s 1 p.m. game between the Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers at the Coliseum is an exhibition. It means nothing. New Raiders Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig, who helped define 49er dominance in the 1980s, probably won’t make more than minimal appearances. The real drama is still two months down the road, when the teams meet for keeps on Sept. 29, again at the Coliseum.

Call this a dress rehearsal. Vengeance is not theirs.

Sure.

Consider another scene: In the Raiders’ locker room, about noon, Lott will slip over his pads a different game jersey for the first time in his 10-year NFL career. For Craig, it was eight years in the same colors. He even knocked a few numbers off his familiar No. 33.

“When I came to the Raiders, I wanted to change everything,” Craig said this week. “No. 22 looks faster. It’s a lower number.”

Lott, the dominant free safety of his era, helped the 49ers win four Super Bowl championships. Craig, who set new standards as a running/receiving back, was a member of three title teams.

Meanwhile, in the 49ers’ locker room, separated from Lott and Craig by a wall, quarterback Joe Montana will dress in his cubicle.

The former teammates might as well be worlds apart.

When do their eyes first meet? What do they say? Who breaks the ice? Who takes the first shot?

More important, does Ronnie Lott know it’s an exhibition?

“I’ll be the first to tell you,” Lott said, “if something happens out there, I’ll be the first one out on the field protecting our guys. There has to be more to it than just playing a game. There’s just more to it. Once you sign on the dotted line and become a Raider, you’ve got to become a Raider through and throughout.”

Anything less from Lott would be unbecoming. “In a sense, I feel like I owe it to them,” he said of his fans in San Francisco. “They supported me through this whole damn thing. That’s who I owe it to.”

Emotions run deep. Lott and Craig never wanted to leave San Francisco but, as part of a wider housecleaning, they were not protected as Plan B free agents. It was an insult in their eyes. The 49ers apparently were desperate, having slipped to 14-2 last season while missing a third consecutive Super Bowl appearance by the margin of a last-second field goal in the NFC title game.

“It’s business,” Craig maintains. “The guys I went to war with for eight years, I expect them to come at me with the same attitude. I just want to have some fun. I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. I don’t have to prove they made a mistake in letting me go.”

Ah, but wouldn’t it be nice?

Fortunately for Lott and Craig, there might be as many strangers as friends on the opposing sideline. Gone from last year’s squad are Matt Millen, Jim Fahnhorst, Mike Wilson, Keena Turner, Eric Wright and Pete Kugler.

Montana is the only remaining 49er from the 1981 team that won Super Bowl XVI.

To every season, turn, turn, turn.

“Of course, it has an effect on us,” 49er Coach George Seifert said of the changes. “It seems like yesterday when I first started coaching Ronnie Lott as a defensive backs coach. Now, here we are trying to develop the new group. But that’s what professional football is all about.”

While most of the focus will on Lott and Craig, these Raider subplots will also be unfolding:

--No. 2 quarterback. Coach Art Shell has named Jay Schroeder the starter, but the contest for his backup is wide open. Realistically, you can count rookie Todd Marinovich out for now, leaving Vince Evans and Steve Beuerlein to battle for a roster spot.

Evans, 36, who refuses to act his age, will open the exhibition season as No. 2. He was the beneficiary of Beuerlein’s summer holdout last season. Beuerlein hasn’t been in uniform since 1989 and wants to prove that his arm doesn’t need Rustoleum.

Beuerlein, a Notre Dame graduate, is bright enough to realize the stakes. “It doesn’t take a genius to know they’ve got one spot available and they’re not going to keep four quarterbacks,” he said.

--Marinovich’s Coliseum homecoming. This one gets lost in the shuffle somewhat because the former Trojan isn’t expected to play. His followers will be happy to know, however, that Marinovich is throwing spirals again after shaking off some serious early camp jitters.

Marinovich knows it will take some time to adjust to the pro game. “You have faster people coming at you and you have to try to throw to some real fast guys,” he said. “The coaches say I can take my five-step drop and throw it as far as I can, and still I won’t overthrow Willie Gault. I believe it.”

--Outside linebacker. There are changes in Mr. Robinson’s neighborhood. Jerry Robinson, 34, is being eased out of the starting lineup in favor of fresher legs, Winston Moss and Aaron Wallace. Moss, acquired in an off-season trade with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has been working as the starter this week. Wallace, who has been bothered by nagging injuries, might be questionable today.

Raider Notes

Most unenviable assignment of the year has to go to Johnnie Jackson, who assumes Ronnie Lott’s free safety position in the San Francisco secondary. . . . Tackle Bubba Paris, who reported to the 49ers’ camp with a cholesterol count of 400, has been sequestered from the team in private workouts with the team’s physical development coordinator, Jerry Attaway. . . . With Bob Golic still a holdout, Roy Hart, a World League of American Football star, will start at nose tackle for the Raiders.