PRO FOOTBALL : The Falcons Will Be at Home in a Dome

The most meaningless aspect about exhibition football games is the final score. But it’s possible sometimes to see where the teams are heading. And in the NFC West this year, they could be heading toward a four-team dead heat:

--The San Francisco 49ers and the New Orleans Saints have the required defensive personnel.

--The Rams have a new enthusiasm generated by a new coach, Chuck Knox, whose specialty is turning losers around.

--And the Atlanta Falcons have a new domed stadium.

“The Falcons under Jerry Glanville were a wild bunch last year when they were playing outdoors,” a Philadelphia Eagle lineman, Mike Golic, said after Sunday’s game. “They’ll be twice as intense in a noisy dome.”

Glanville, whose team was 6-2 at home last year, is shooting for 8-0 this year in the Georgia Dome.

A must win: The most significant scene on the massive new TV screens at either end of the Georgia Dome on Sunday was a fourth-quarter shot of Glanville looking nervously at the time clock with 3:43 to play.

To win the first exhibition game played in the Georgia Dome, 20-10, the Atlanta coach kept most of his first-stringers on the field for every down. Starting quarterback Chris Miller went all the way.

“I was a little surprised,” said Miller, who, obviously, still doesn’t know Glanville.

One-party town: In the football stadiums of America--college and pro--tailgating seems to be half the fun. Before most games, the partying lasts for hours, as it did last year in Atlanta, where Falcon fans have been tailgating by the thousands since the 1960s.

So the strange thing about the small Georgia Dome parking lot Sunday, in the hours leading up to the kickoff, was that only one party was in progress.

“They told us not to come this year, but we came anyway,” said Falcon fan Susan Stephens, an Atlanta resident for 41 years. “And we’ll keep coming, if we don’t get thrown out.

“We understand the problem--there’s no place to park at the Georgia Dome. And I guess it doesn’t matter too much when you’re winning. But we’ve had a losing team most of the years we’ve had season tickets, and when you’re losing, the tailgate party is the only thing to look forward to.”

That message has, over the years, come from every other pro and college town.

Said Stephens: “They’ll be sorry about this someday.”

New owner: Steve Emtman of Washington, the defensive lineman who became the NFL’s top pick this year when he was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts, has bought one of the largest houses in town.

“Look at this place,” he told an Indianapolis interviewer. “I sit in here and it’s like, ‘whose house is this? Am I house-sitting for someone?’ ”

Probably not. The former owner doesn’t intend to return. He is Eric Dickerson, who will be in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, playing football for the Raiders against the Houston Oilers.

In Indianapolis, they haven’t forgotten him. At Emtman’s new house, the gold knocker on the front door still bears Dickerson’s name and uniform number, 29.

Glitch magnifiers: The NFL isn’t keeping an official book on officials’ mistakes this summer, but others have noted, unofficially, that there has been at least one play in every exhibition game that could have been overruled by instant-replay reviewers--if they were still being used.

The league voted them out this year.

“The thing for us to be concerned about is if it happens in the regular season,” said Jim Finks, president of the New Orleans Saints.

Finks, chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, is an instant-replay booster who said that the most formidable critics of the mechanism have been the television announcers who aren’t knowledgeable football people.

“What has hurt instant-replay (officiating) more than anything are the commentators and broadcasters who, for whatever reason, are anti-instant replay,” Finks said. “Every time there’s a glitch, they magnify it tenfold.

“The interesting thing is that (the commentators) who have a football background--the John Maddens, the Hank Strams--are for it.”

Other announcers say that instant replay “delays the game unnecessarily,” but Finks responds:

“It doesn’t ever delay a game unnecessarily when it can change an obvious mistake into a correct call. The average game might be delayed a total of (two-plus minutes)--but that’s a small price to pay for correct calls.”

Football poll: When the NFL polled its youngest leaders this summer on their likes and dislikes, there were a few surprises.

Asked to name the person they would most like to meet, three new coaches answered as follows:

Bill Cowher, Pittsburgh Steelers: “Vince Lombardi.”

David Shula, Cincinnati Bengals: “Abraham Lincoln.”

Mike Holmgren, Green Bay Packers: “Sophia Loren.”

Robinson’s options: In his year away from coaching, John Robinson is keeping his options open.

“The possibilities (next year) are exciting,” Robinson said, referring to college coaching, pro coaching or broadcasting. “But I needed this year off from football.”

After two games as a Prime Ticket analyst--USC-San Diego State Sept. 5 and USC-Oklahoma Sept. 19--Robinson will begin his CBS career in October.

“All of a sudden, I’m an expert,” he said. “I have to resist taking myself seriously.”

He applauds Bill Walsh’s return to Stanford.

“Bill made the right decision for him,” Robinson said. “And I can see myself doing something like that, too. But it’s too early to really think about it.”

Walsh’s disciples: There is a new division in the NFL this season: the Bill Walsh division.

Three of the five teams in the NFC Central are coached by men who prepped with Walsh in San Francisco.

They are Sam Wyche of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dennis Green of the Minnesota Vikings and Mike Holmgren of the Green Bay Packers.

“This used to be the black-and-blue division,” said Wayne Fontes of the Detroit Lions, who, along with Mike Ditka of the the Chicago Bears, is a Central holdover.

“The difference is that (Wyche, Green and Holmgren) are finesse-type coaches. There will be more passing in the (NFC Central) this year, more wide-open offenses.”

Wyche, conceding that Ditka could have one more championship season, said: “The (change) won’t be as dramatic this year. Mike, Denny and myself will find out what our teams can do. But you’ll see a different look.”

Holmgren, speaking for all three of Walsh’s proteges, told Arizona Republic reporter Steve Schoenfeld: “(Walsh) gave me a chance to work in this league. He could have hired . . . a lot of guys with more experience.

“He probably also yelled at me more than any 10 people, but I learned from him. If nothing else, I’m a good student.”

Quote Dept.:

--Warren Moon, Houston quarterback, on NFL owners: “They break your spirit. They make you defensive about yourself. (In negotiations) they make you sweat till you break.”

--Boomer Esiason, Cincinnati quarterback, on the Bengals’ decision to draft quarterback David Klingler in the first round: “I’m not concerned about my position. I’m concerned about, do we really have an opportunity to win here now ?”

--Harvey Williams, Kansas City running back, on the Chiefs’ new offense: “People said we were so predictable (last year). I’m not saying we were, but we are doing all kinds of different stuff this year. People in the NFL are going to be tripping out with what we are doing.”