DANA POINT – Two of the more fascinating yet enigmatic figures in the NFL took center stage Wednesday, the final day of the league meetings at the St. Regis Monarch Bay Resort.

And you would have thought Russell Simmons' "Def Comedy Jam" was in the house.

Raiders owner Al Davis held court in the lavish hotel lobby for 30 minutes, regaling journalists with decades-old tales of recruiting wars between his old AFL and the established NFL in the days before the merger and pleading Hall of Fame cases of former Raiders.

San Francisco coach Mike Singletary – who will never live down his infamous debut as interim coach when he pulled down his pants in the locker room at halftime, banished Vernon Davis to said locker room before the game ended and went on a memorable postgame media conference rant – showed an affable personality in an hourlong breakfast with reporters.

That both are Bay Area football figures/comics was a bonus.

That Singletary is lampooned on a "Late Show with David Letterman" skit had the Hall of Fame linebacker scratching his head.

"I'm still trying to figure it out," Singletary said with a smile. "I don't know if he likes me or hates me."

On the spoof, Letterman interviews a wild-eyed Singletary look-and-sound-alike who speaks in sports clichés while yelling at the host.

Singletary also flashed an impish grin when asked what he learned in his first season as a head coach.

"The biggest thing I learned," Samurai Mike said dryly, "you have to be a little more careful at halftime with the things you do. … You're not by yourself."

Laughter erupted to his reference to Pantsgate.

"I learned that quickly," he added. "I think you have to. You have to make sure you find some humor in your job. And I have a lot of fun with what I do.

"It's very important to have a lot of good coaches around me and some funny players as well.

Then about your role in the comical "Super Bowl Shuffle" video …

Davis, meanwhile, was cutting it up with a group of reporters that grew with every yarn he spun, every joke he told.

He looked and felt at ease, and the walker he uses to get around with these days seemed to disappear with the laughs he generated.

"I may buy that paper," Davis told a New York Times sportswriter.

"I'm too old to fight," he said a few thoughts later when reminiscing about run-ins with reporters.

"I always thought Pete (Rozelle) was great," Davis said of the late NFL commissioner, with whom the 1970 merger was brokered. "He could be handled; he didn't want confrontation. The gorilla wins … We (the AFL) were the gorilla in those days."

Tales of hiding players to spirit away from the NFL and sending fake memos to NFL execs followed.

"I don't know who these people were devising these schemes," he said with a wink.

But he grew serious when pleading the cases of his biggest Canton snubs – Cliff Branch, Jim Plunkett and, later, Tom Flores.

"What other quarterback, besides Plunkett, has won two Super Bowls and is not in the Hall of Fame?" he asked the gathering.

Told Tom Brady, who is most assuredly headed for enshrinement, Davis pounced.

"He won the "Tuck Game," (forget) him," Davis said, and the room erupted. "He did win it, the son of a (gun)."

Darth Raider grinned. Just as Samurai Mike had a few hours earlier.

Maybe they were just happy the meetings were ending.

Call The Bee's Paul Gutierrez, (916) 326-5556.