Article on Gates from the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Robin Miller
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/1097927722288380.xml
Gates is making sense of his football success
Too short for NBA, Kent star excels as tight end
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Jodie Valade
Plain Dealer Reporter
When word got out about who he was and what he had once done,
challengers lined up before Antonio Gates. His San Diego Chargers
teammates wanted to see if Gates really was a decent basketball player.
They begged for pick-up games, H-O-R-S-E, anything.
"You don't understand," Gates would tell them. "I was an All-American."
It was like that when he played basketball at Kent State, too. No one
understood. He never played a down of college football, but the 6-4,
260-pound behemoth boasted of football skills that would one day lead to
fame.
"You don't understand," Gates would tell them. "I'm going to be good."
He has tried so hard to make everyone understand that just because he
played one sport in college doesn't mean he can't play another
professionally. And there's no reason he can't be a standout in both.
Gates was dominant in two years as a power forward at Kent State, an
integral part of the 2002 squad that went to the Elite Eight his junior
season. He averaged 20.6 points and 7.7 rebounds his senior year, when
the Golden Flashes won another MAC title and he was honorable mention
All-America.
And here he is now, the starting tight end for the Chargers, the
fourth-leading receiver in the AFC and one of quarterback Drew Brees'
favorite targets. In five games this season, he has 31 receptions for
342 yards. He's scored three touchdowns, two in last Sunday's 34-21
victory over Jacksonville.
In just his second season in the NFL - after going five years without
playing football and going undrafted by any team in any league - he
finds himself as one of the rising stars in the NFL, one of the league's
top young tight ends and a reason the Chargers are 3-2 this season.
Do you understand, now?
"He always told us how good a football player he was," said Kent State
basketball coach Jim Christian.
But no one ever saw it at Kent State because basketball was, and still
is, Gates' passion. So he bounced from Michigan State to Eastern
Michigan to College of the Sequoias in California trying to find a place
where he felt settled, a place that would let him pursue both football
and basketball.
He found his way to Kent after his high school coach at Detroit Central,
Oronde Taliaferro, was hired as one of the school's assistant basketball
coaches. He intended to play both sports for the Golden Flashes, but
decided to focus on his true love, basketball.
By his senior year, after he had drawn the spotlight for his performance
in the NCAA Tournament, the scouts began packing the stands at Kent
State games. Except they weren't NBA scouts.
They were from the NFL.
They had heard Gates might be a football prospect, and they liked what
they saw in his footwork, his jumping abilities, his soft hands and his
pure athletic ability. They asked Christian what he was like to coach,
and they liked what they heard.
"He's the most coachable guy I've ever been around," Christian said.
"He's the most confident guy I've ever been around. He's more sure of
his abilities than anyone I've ever been around."
Still, Gates gave the NBA a shot because it was his first love. He
attended the Portsmouth, Va., pre-draft camp. He didn't particularly
shine, and he saw that his competition just to be drafted was fierce.
"If Antonio were two, three inches taller, he'd be an NBA player," said
Stan Heath, Arkansas men's basketball coach and Gates' former coach at
Kent State. "He'd be a very, very good NBA player. The only thing that
slows him down is his height. If he's 6-8 and 250, he's in the NBA."
Gates held a workout for 14 NFL teams and received promising feedback.
His path to professional basketball would almost certainly require a
trip overseas. He opted to pursue football.
He signed with the Chargers in May 2003 and has rarely picked up a
basketball competitively since. He's had other adaptations to make to
his lifestyle, too.
"It's been a circus ride for me," Gates said from San Diego this week.
"There are a lot of adjustments that I had to make."
He had to learn the language of football, something he hadn't been
around since high school. He had to adjust to the speed of the game -
far different from anything he experienced when he was 18 and a much
different pace from a college basketball game.
He caught on quickly. He earned the starting spot from coach Marty
Schottenheimer in November 2003 and now is one of this season's most
surprising stories.
Surprising only to those who don't know him.
"His mind-set for competing and out-executing his opponent, for being
mentally tough, is something I've never seen in any other player,"
Taliaferro said. "He's fearless."
Said Christian: "Antonio has so much belief in himself that nothing is
going to rattle him. He really believes he's the best player on the field."
Christian's unwavering sup port for Gates is evident. The walls of his
Kent State office are coated with pictures of the 2002 team, of
individual faces and group celebration photos.
But one wall has just a single picture: a shot of Gates catching his
first NFL touchdown in 2003. It is the only football picture among a sea
of hoops. Christian proudly points it out, and defends its position
hidden in the basketball offices instead of in the main halls of the arena.
"That's our guy," he beamed.
Christian knows how hard Gates worked to transition from basketball to
football, how he surrendered the game he loved for the one in which he
had the most talent. How he fought the critics and began seemingly ev
ery sentence at Kent State with, "You don't understand."
There are thing Gates misses about basketball. He doesn't like that he
has to wear equipment that weighs him down and covers his face.
But he has learned there is beauty in football, too. He has found his
passion in scoring touchdowns - something he said feels better than
dunking a basketball before a raucous crowd.
"A touchdown is worth six points. That's equal to three dunks," he said,
laughing. "It's definitely a better feeling to score a touchdown."
Do you understand now?
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jva...@plaind.com, 216-999-4654.
© 2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.