Things Are Looking Up for Tomczak : Pro Football: After three weeks on the bench, Chicago Bear quarterback gets a start against the Washington Redskins.

Mike Tomczak has been looking to the future and thinking about the past in the last week.

As he goes back into the starting lineup Sunday against the Redskins after spending three weeks on the bench, he likes to talk about where the San Francisco 49ers were a year ago at this time.

“They were 6-5 and they wound up winning the Super Bowl, so I think we’re in the same position as they were a year ago,” he said.

It just so happens the 49ers beat the Redskins, 37-21, in the 12th game to start their turnaround.

Now it’s the Chicago Bears’ turn to take a crack at starting a comeback against the Redskins.

They have managed to struggle to a 6-5 start, too.

There’s one difference, though.

A year ago, 49ers Coach Bill Walsh finally gave the baton to Joe Montana after alternating him with Steve Young much of the season.

Meanwhile, Coach Mike Ditka of the Bears is calling on Tomczak after benching him for Jim Harbaugh.

Tomczak, of course, has yet to prove he’s another Joe Montana -- or even another Jim McMahon.

The five-year free agent from Ohio State has had his moments.

One of them came just last week when Ditka put him in for Harbaugh with 4:43 left in the game and the Bears trailing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 23-10.

All he did was throw three touchdown passes in 2 minutes, 41 seconds to give the Bears a 31-29 lead with 1:46 left. The defense couldn’t hold it and the Bears lost, 32-31.

But that performance earned him another shot at the starting lineup.

“I was completely unconscious,” Tomczak said. “Every spiral seemed so tight I didn’t realize I was throwing it. The smile on my face grew and grew, to show the confidence growing.”

The problem for Tomczak is that he’s only had moments in his career. He’s never been able to do it week in and week out.

In fact, his trademark is being screamed at by Ditka on the sidelines.

Tomczak’s ego was so shattered in his dealings with Ditka that he even went to a psychiatrist a year ago to learn how to cope with it.

“It’s not easy playing three years and getting bitched at all the time,” he said last year.

Tomczak said he learned to use self-hypnosis 30 minutes a day.

“It might sound weird or hokey, but it works,” he said.

These days, Tomczak is not eager to talk about needing a psychiatrist to live with Ditka. He said “not all of it” was about Ditka.

Tomczak said when he was benched three weeks ago, he complained to Ditka about it.

“Obviously, I talked to Mike a few times, voicing my concern that I didn’t think a replacement was needed, but I’m a player and he’s the head coach. I respected his decision.

“I was happy with the talks we had,” Tomczak said.

Ditka also said he has no problems getting along with Tomczak, forgetting the days when he used to grab him by the jersey on the sidelines.

“I don’t know why you’d even ask that question (about getting along with Tomczak). That’s why I won’t answer it because it’s a silly question. Why wouldn’t I get along with him? I get along with everybody. Mike and I have always gotten along well when he was starting and when he wasn’t. Mike’s an excellent young man. I’ve got great respect and admiration for him. It’s not a matter of getting along with people or liking or disliking. We have to try to do what we think is best for 47 men,” Ditka said.

During the first four years of his career, Tomczak was mostly the fill-in for McMahon.

Since McMahon was often injured, he wound up playing a lot even though the job was never his. He was even the starter in the Bears’ only playoff victory since their Super Bowl championship at the end of the 1985 season -- the “Fog Bowl” against the Philadelphia Eagles last New Year’s Eve.

Tomczak suffered a shoulder injury in that game and Ditka went back to McMahon the next week against the 49ers in the National Football Conference title game with the Super Bowl berth on the line. He said McMahon was the healthier of the two although he obviously hoped McMahon had some of the old magic left.

It turned out he had nothing left up his sleeve. The Bears were whipped, 28-3, and Ditka decided the McMahon era was over. The Bears swapped him to the San Diego Chargers during training camp.

The Tomczak era was supposed to start this year. It lasted only eight games, then he was back on the bench.

“This is a very humbling profession,” Tomczak said. “I don’t let my ego get in the way of what I’m trying to do. I knew an opportunity would come sooner or later. Before you experience the highest mountain, you have to experience the lowest valleys.”

Quarterback, of course, isn’t the Bears’ only problem. They’re simply not the team they were four years ago or maybe even a year ago.

But the quarterback gets the blame if things don’t go right. The next eight days could make or break Tomczak’s season and maybe his career. After playing Washington Sunday, the Bears go to Minnesota next week. If they win both, they’ll be no worse than tied for first place in their division and Tomczak will get the plaudits.

If they don’t, he’ll be getting the heat.

One of his best games was against the Redskins at RFK last November when he completed 15 of 26 passes for 229 yards and a touchdown in a 34-14 victory.

In that game, he looked as if he could be the team’s quarterback of the future. Instead, he finds himself struggling with Harbaugh for the job. He also finds himself reminded that no free-agent quarterback has ever taken a team to the Super Bowl.

“In Chicago, the quarterback position has been very interchangeable,” he said.

This may be Tomczak’s shot to become the Chicago quarterback.