Absent Davis Leaves Raiders in Lurch for Home Opener : Pro football: Seahawks arrive today as suddenly thin line gets juggled without defensive end.

So where is Scott Davis?

Not at practice Saturday, the fourth consecutive day he had missed. And not on the field for the Raider home opener this afternoon against the Seattle Seahawks at the Coliseum.

Davis, the Raiders’ starting left defensive end, has not been seen at the team’s El Segundo training headquarters since Tuesday.

He has been in contact with Coach Art Shell, citing “personal problems” as the reason for his disappearance.

On Tuesday, Davis’ last day on the job, he got into a brawl with teammate Greg Biekert, but people who know Davis, both inside and outside the organization, discount the fight as the cause of his absence.

“The fight may be a symptom,” said a close friend who asked not to be identified, “but I don’t think anybody gets into a fight and leaves. In all my football experience, I’ve never heard of that. He may have a problem with teammates or his coaches, but I have a hard time believing a guy gets into a fight and says he’s not going to play anymore. Maybe he’s just had it with football. He has never really been focused on whether he wants to play or not.”

This is the third time Davis has left the sport unexpectedly. After his first season at the University of Illinois, he took a year off, saying he was “burned out.” After starting every game for the Raiders in the 1990 and ’91 seasons, he retired for two years before coming back this summer at age 29.

Biekert, still wearing a bandage on his nose from the fight, declined comment.

“Guys have fights all the time,” said another Raider teammate. “Then they’re hugging each other the next day. I think it’s some other things. We’re not down on him. We just want him to play.”

If Davis doesn’t play, serious questions will arise over the four-year, $4.35-million contract he signed to rejoin the Raiders this season, a contract that includes a signing bonus of a little over $1 million.

Of more immediate concern is the suddenly thin Raider defensive line. With Howie Long retired, with Greg Townsend in Philadelphia, with Willie Broughton still at least a week away from playing because of an elbow injury, the Raiders will move Nolan Harrison to end, start Jerry Ball at tackle and are down to veteran Aundray Bruce, converted tight end John Duff and rookie Austin Robbins for reserve strength.

If it’s hot at the Coliseum, there might be some heavy breathing on that line in the fourth quarter.

Still, if the Seahawks were to beat the favored Raiders today, that would be considered an upset. But the biggest upset of all is that the Seahawks and Raiders are at the Coliseum.

No one would have predicted that nearly eight months ago, when the Northridge earthquake left the 71-year-old L.A. Coliseum looking more like the 1,900-year-old Rome Colosseum.

But it’s amazing what a massive reconstruction project and $60 million can do. The Coliseum opened its gates on schedule last week for the USC home opener, the old, gray saucer looking sturdy and bright, the rubble cleared away and the cracks patched. Today, it’s the Raiders’ turn to return home.

They have taken a long and winding road to get back since their last Coliseum appearance, a 42-24 first-round playoff victory over the Denver Broncos early last January.

Since the Raiders were eliminated from the playoffs in subzero weather in Buffalo, they have spent a long off-season listening to rumors that they were headed everywhere from Florida to Maryland to Oakland, have gone to training camp in Oxnard, have played an exhibition game in Barcelona, followed by exhibitions in Dallas, Pittsburgh, Anaheim and Houston, and have gone to San Francisco, where they were humiliated in their season opener Monday night by the 49ers, 44-14.

If only the Raiders looked as good as their refurbished home. . . . They, too, underwent an off-season reconstruction project, spending $29 million to patch up the holes and cracks so evident in their lineup last season.

But the Raiders’ grand opening last week was nothing like that of the Coliseum’s.

The Raiders have won their last four games at the Coliseum, playoffs included. They have won their last eight against Seattle, the last Seahawk victory coming in 1989.

Things may be different this year, however. Once the league’s offensive laughingstock, the Seahawks have become respectable with the development of quarterback Rick Mirer to complement running back Chris Warren.

Two years ago, Seattle scored 140 points, an NFL record for futility in a 16-game season. But last season, with Mirer, the first-round draft choice from Notre Dame at the controls, the Seahawks doubled that total.

And last week, Seattle opened impressively against an admittedly weak Washington team, beating the Redskins, 28-7. It was Seattle’s first opening-day victory since 1988.

To stop the Seahawks, the Raiders must stop Mirer. Their chances would be a lot better if Davis were to show up at the Coliseum.

That doesn’t figure to happen today. Will it ever happen? Only one man knows and he’s not around to ask.

Raider Notes

Defensive backs Derrick Hoskins and Lionel Washington are both listed as probable. . . . For the Seahawks, defensive tackle Sam Adams, the club’s top draft choice, is expected to delay his NFL debut for at least another week because of a knee injury. . . . The NFL Experience, the football theme park set up at the 1993 Super Bowl in Pasadena, will be open again this morning in Exposition Park, north of the Coliseum, from 9 to 11:30. Admission is by game ticket only.

RAIDERS

TODAY’S GAME

* Opponent: Seattle Seahawks.

* Site: Coliseum.

* Time: 1 p.m.

* Records: Raiders 0-1, Seahawks 1-0.

* TV: None.

* Radio: KFI (640), KWKW (1330), KMEN (1290).

* Rosters: C16.