Mike Tomczak has lived in Green Bay for three months, long enough to get used to driving on Lombardi Street. Yet when he sat down for coach Lindy Infante`s team meeting to open the Packers` training camp this week, he felt he was wearing a costume.
”I thought I was in the wrong classroom,” he said. ”Even though I`ve been here three months, it just seemed a little weird not being in Platteville sitting with familiar faces.”
After six years with the Bears and a lifetime in Chicago, Tomczak still gets an occasional ”they” confused with ”us” in conversation. But as long as he can sort out the jerseys in a new passing system, he figures everything else will fall into place.
Infante`s ”Pass to Daylight” offense is credited with making football simpler for any quarterback, but the truth is not any quarterback can thrive in it. The quick reads and quick arm of Don Majkowski have been at least as important as the X`s and O`s. To Tomczak, the system places more pressure on the quarterback than he has ever experienced, and he welcomes the challenge.
”It`s rewarding if you know what you`re doing out there, but humbling when you find yourself thinking instead of reacting,” he said.
Tomczak said the number of options he has a Packers quarterback is the biggest difference between the systems.
”This is a complete passing game sideline to sideline, whereas in the past it was a third or two-thirds of the field, so you have more room to work,” he said. ”It`s a reaction thing. Once a guy breaks open in a certain option, you`ve got to get him the ball. If he`s not there, you look to the other side of the field, and a receiver is going to come wide open. You`re not tied into one receiver.
”Chicago had a good supporting cast and a running game to take a lot of pressure off, but it wasn`t until the running game was shut down or a crucial third-down situation that you (the quarterback) were really put in the spotlight. This is one system that`s going to test and see how good I am as a quarterback.”
Green Bay signed Tomczak as a Plan B free agent to provide insurance for Majkowski`s right shoulder after an operation similar to one Tomczak endured before last season. Some cynical Bears fans hope Tomczak sees plenty of action, and some skeptical Packers fans fear he will. None has said so to his face.
”The whole environment hss been very warm,” Tomczak said. ”I think people respect me because I have a number of years in the league and they know I`m here for one reason-to win. I`ve heard people say `Good luck` who are Bear fans. Do they mean it? You don`t know until the season starts.”
Even before Tomczak switched teams, he and Majkowski were closer friends than he and Bears quarterback Jim Harbaugh ever were, so the working relationship has been gratifying in a profession where friends can be fickle. ”There are no egos here,” Majkowski said.
Tomczak said Majkowski has not spent much time commiserating about his injury. Majkowski deflected speculation before camp started by declaring his arm 100 percent fit.
”Don is still going to experience some soreness, which is normal,”
Tomczak said. ”He knows he can talk to me if he has to, but I think there`s still some hidden pride in there to not let a competitor know. I always did that, too. That`s human nature.”
Tomczak is competing with Anthony Dilweg and Blair Kiel for the second and third QB spots. The experience he brings from Chicago could provide a boost in the locker room as well as on the field.
”I haven`t been out much socially with these guys,” he said. ”If there`s any small little criticism, it`s just lacking the belief that we can win. Hopefully, that`s something I can carry over from Chicago, because we refused to get beaten. We just carried that chip on our shoulder and said, `We are the Bears and nobody is going to beat us.`
”They carry a lot of credibility, Chicago does, but I`ve been on that team and I know that we . . . er, they can be beaten as easily as San Francisco or New York, because we have the players here. It`s just a matter of everyone coming together and believing we can win.”
