A LOOK AT THIS WEEK’S RAM AND RAIDER OPPONENTS : IN HIS OWN RIGHT : Majkowski Is Able to Put Packer Legends to Rest, for Now

There are worse fates than to have your name end in ski, and play quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. After all, America’s Dairyland, which is stuffed to the gills with west Slavic types, takes kindly to tall, blond, Polish-surnamed players who might finally bring its beloved Pack back.

Of course, you would never have known it as the Packers began the second quarter of last Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field. Trailing, 21-0, the Packers couldn’t do anything right.

And the worst offender, according to the boos that day, was former crowd sweetheart Don Majkowski (Ma-KOW-skee), who completed his first two passes but then couldn’t hit the side of a silo, much less a receiver’s hands, for a while.

Majkowski threw a first-quarter interception that resulted in a Saint touchdown. He fumbled in the second period but managed to recover that bobble. He had as bad a start as a quarterback could never hope for--and don’t think the 55,809 Packer die-hards in attendance ignored the mistakes. At one point, they booed their Wisconsin lungs out, causing Majkowski to turn to a teammate and say, “Can you believe that . . . ?”

It was the first time Majkowski had heard such jeers. And though he couldn’t quite blame the fans for sounding off, Majkowski was upset enough to tell reporters later that the fans “shouldn’t have done that.”

Hey, how were they to know Majkowski would live up to his nickname of Majik? And who would have guessed that the Packers, 4-12 last season, would record the second-best comeback in the franchise’s 50-year history?

But it happened, and the Packers, who will play the Rams Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, can partly thank Majkowski for the 35-34 victory that had Lambeau Field shaking with echoes from the past.

To begin with, Majkowski put together a string of 18 consecutive completions, which tied him with, among others, former Packer Lynn Dickey, who accomplished the feat in 1983. Only two other quarterbacks in the National Football League have ever done better.

“I wasn’t aware of the streak or record or anything else,” he said earlier this week from Green Bay. “I was just out there trying to execute well and get some points on the board. I just found out (about Dickey’s record) after the game, basically.”

Majkowski also helped provide the Packers with 490 yards of offense, their highest output in three years. But to hear Majkowski talk, you would have thought that he had little to do with the game’s outcome. He credited his offensive line and then mentioned how the receivers had run good routes.

And there you have it: the anatomy of one of the most thrilling comebacks in Packer annals.

Actually, Majkowski reportedly has a bit of a brash streak in him. Selected in the 10th round of the 1987 draft, he has gone from no-name to long name to, well, the possibilities are varied. Either he has the chance to become something special or to join a growing list of undistinguished Packer quarterbacks. History isn’t on his side.

The problem is that a fellow by the name of Bart Starr once wore a Packer uniform. All he did was win two straight Super Bowls and create a legacy so strong that no one--not Scott Hunter, Jerry Tagge, John Hadl, Dickey, David Whitehurst or, most recently, Randy Wright--could approach it.

Now along comes Majkowski, who was 2 when Starr dived head-first behind the block of Ken Bowman and Jerry Kramer and into the frozen end zone of Lambeau Field to beat the Dallas Cowboys in the 1967 NFL championship game. So forgive him if he doesn’t get caught up in the ongoing nostalgia festival that is Packer football. Truth is, he has other things to worry about.

For instance, Majkowski would like to see a nagging tendinitis problem disappear permanently. But it won’t, which is why he spends three days a week in the weight room, strengthening his throwing shoulder, the same shoulder that caused him to miss the team’s mini-camps.

“It didn’t reach 100% until the week before (training) camp started,” he said.

That was good enough for the Packers, who placed Majkowski as the favorite to win the starting job, but made no promises. According to Coach Lindy Infante, the position was open to all. But by the end of the third exhibition game, it was evident that Majkowski had secured his standing atop the depth chart.

The trick was to stay there. Majkowski started nine games in 1988, but found himself wondering if a botched play would bring on a replacement. This year, Infante took steps to ensure there was no confusion or second quessing. He chose Majkowski as the starter and said he would stay there, barring a total collapse.

“I told Don when I gave him the job back a month ago, I said, ‘I don’t have a quick hook. I’m not going to yank you out of the game if you throw an interception. And if you have a bad game, I’m not taking the job away from you the next week,’ ” Infante said.

True to his word, Infante kept Majkowski in the lineup, even when the Packers fell behind by three touchdowns to the Saints last Sunday.

“I think we’ve got to give Don every opportunity here to express himself and I think last week it certainly paid off,” he said. “There’s no reason to change for change’s sake. We need to find out how far Don can go.”

And how far the Packers can go with him.