PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : EXHIBITION GAMES : Astrodome Game Off Because of Rug

Oiler owner Bud Adams was already at odds with the Houston Astrodome, and Saturday night’s debacle did nothing to change his position.

After a 70-minute delay, the exhibition game between the Oilers and San Diego Chargers was canceled because the artificial turf at the Astrodome was ruled unsafe for play.

“After looking at the field, the league felt it was not safe,” said Nick Skorich, a former NFL coach and the league’s officiating observer for the game.

“I looked at several spots at midfield and the spots in the corner of the end zone. The corner had a very irregular surface. I felt it was not as good as it used to be and was dangerous.”

About 25,000 fans came to the game, many already angry with the Oilers and Adams, who is contemplating moving the team to Nashville, Tenn., because he’s unhappy with the Astrodome.

Carl Marsalis, president of Astrodome USA, which manages the stadium, said Astro owner Drayton McLane agreed to accept liability for any player injured because of the playing surface, but the offer was not accepted by the Oilers.

Marsalis said crews who replaced the field after a baseball game Thursday used the same procedures they have employed for the last eight years.

The Elias Sports Bureau, which compiles statistics on professional sports, could not immediately find another NFL game that had been canceled.

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Dan Marino threw a touchdown pass and Louis Oliver scored on a 97-yard interception return to help the Dolphins beat the Washington Redskins, 27-13, at Miami in a game in which five Dolphins, including defensive standouts Bryan Cox and Troy Vincent, were injured. . . . Omar Douglas turned a desperation pass tipped by defender Anthony Prior into an 80-yard touchdown with 22 seconds to play and Keith Elias ran in the two-point conversion, giving the New York Giants a 32-31 victory over the New York Jets at East Rutherford, N.Y. . . . Mike Cofer kicked his fourth field goal of the game, a 20-yarder, 3:30 into overtime to give the Indianapolis Colts a 20-17 victory over the Packers at Green Bay. . . . Steve Bono threw three touchdown passes in the Chiefs’ 36-10 victory over Buffalo at Kansas City. . . . Morten Andersen kicked four field goals and Bobby Hebert hit Mario Bailey with a 45-yard touchdown pass in the Falcons’ 19-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns in Atlanta. . . . Steve Young completed all seven of his passes and ran for a touchdown and Merton Hanks stopped a threat with an interception in the 49ers’ 17-10 victory over Carolina at San Francisco. . . .

Trent Dilfer passed for 197 yards and two touchdowns in the Buccaneers’ 20-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Tampa.

AFC

Raider Sales Not Smooth

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Thousands of bounced checks and refused credit cards mean the Raiders’ first season back in Oakland isn’t the sellout it was billed to be.

That’s so far--Oakland Coliseum officials stress they still have until next season to bring in the ticket revenue for the stadium renovations they promised owner Al Davis.

“We could not sell another ticket this year and still pay off the bonds without using public funds,” said Dennis Cuneo, a Coliseum board member.

Oakland originally proclaimed that fans snapped up all the so-called personal seat licenses for the Raiders’ homecoming season. That announcement was based on 44,880 applications received, Cuneo said.

But checks have bounced on 300 of the applications, and credit card payments have been refused on 4,439 others, he said.

In all, the Coliseum is 6,036 short of a sellout and 5,261 short of the number of sales it needs to pay off the renovation bonds, he said.

“We are now in the process of running through those credit cards and calling each of those applicants individually,” he said. “We are going to re-run their credit cards if they are still interested in buying tickets.”

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1989 Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware was one of the 16 players cut by the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, who decided not to wait until Tuesday’s deadline for trimming their roster.

Ware never threatened the Jaguars’ top two quarterbacks, Steve Beuerlein and Mark Brunell, and was beaten out for the third spot by rookie Rob Johnson of USC.

Ware played sparingly in the exhibition season, completing only two of seven passes for 11 yards. He didn’t play at all in the Jaguars’ 27-10 loss to St. Louis on Friday night.

Ware was the seventh player taken in the 1990 draft after a brilliant career at Houston, where he set 26 NCAA records. He threw for more than 8,000 yards in his college career, with 75 touchdowns and 28 interceptions in just three season.

But his career got off to a bad start when he missed most of his first training camp with the Lions because of a contract dispute. He wound up playing only 14 games in four seasons with Detroit before he was let go after the 1993 season.

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Hard-luck linebacker Marvin Jones will be lost to the New York Jets for four to six weeks because of a severely sprained right ankle. Jones, the team’s No. 1 draft choice in 1993 who has been hurt for much of his career, was injured in practice during the week.