Gates always thinking basketball
Antonio Gates recalls Nick Saban telling him he’d one day be an NFL first-round draft pick and he could play both football and his beloved basketball at Michigan State. Neither happened. Yet here’s Gates, the former basketball star from Kent State, needing three touchdown catches to break Tony Gonzalez’s NFL record of 111 for a tight end.
Being 6-foot-4 and weighing 250 pounds, Gates knows he made the right choice going to the NFL rather than trying to pursue an NBA career.
Still, for every pass he’s caught from Drew Brees, Doug Flutie, Philip Rivers and even LaDainian Tomlinson, Gates always has basketball in the back of his mind.
“That’s the part that’s kind of like the chip on my shoulder when I play,” he said. “In my mind, I’d be thinking, ‘I wish I would have given it a chance, to see what would have happened.’ But it’s hard to see it because of the success over time playing football.”
Gates, 36, joined the Chargers as a rookie free agent in 2003, a year after leading Kent State to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. He caught his first touchdown pass Nov. 9, 2003.
“It was against Minnesota. From Doug Flutie,” Gates said. “Drew Brees was here and I guess he kind of didn’t get off to a good start and Flutie got in the game and I scored a touchdown.”
Brees regained his starting job but left after 2005 and Rivers became the starter. Rivers and Gates have connected on 82 touchdown passes, the most between a quarterback and tight end. Gates’ 109 TD catches rank him seventh all-time.
When Gates joined the Chargers he hadn’t played a down of football since his senior season at Detroit’s Central High. Saban recruited Gates to Michigan State. Gates left after a year because Saban wouldn’t let him play basketball.
After playing at two junior colleges, Gates ended up starring in hoops at Kent State. Along the way he was noticing people he knew were getting drafted high by NFL teams.
Among them was Dwight Smith — “my homeboy from high school” — who went to Akron and was a thirdround pick of Tampa Bay in 2001.
“That’s how it started,” Gates said.