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Marty Schottenheimer loved Antonio Gates all the way to Chargers' fateful 14-2 season
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- Marty Schottenheimer loved Antonio Gates all the way to Chargers' fateful 14-2 season
When he was almost getting to Super Bowls as coach of the Browns, Marty Schottenheimer had Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome at his disposal and an amusingly fastidious way of describing things.
The coach hadn't lost his penchant for Martyspeak years later when Antonio Gates was his phenom tight end with the San Diego Chargers .
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"Let's be realistic here," Schottenheimer said in 2004. "To suggest that the young man, now halfway through his second year of professional football, could reach the level to which he's come is quite remarkable."
Gates, who should have been in "project" mode, instead was a stunning producer, in a four-game streak of 25 catches and eight touchdowns.
This led to the 2004 postseason in which Gates caught a touchdown pass from Drew Brees with 11 seconds left to force overtime. Alas, it became a loss, a portent of a Marty-mimicking playoff curse.
That doesn't change the fact Gates is the Pro Football Hall of Fame's first basketball-only collegian turned NFL beast.
Chargers tight end Antonio Gates salutes after he scored a touchdown against the Denver Broncos on "Monday Night Football" in San Diego, Oct. 15, 2012.
Gates may have been the fastest learner in Hall of Fame history.
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Despite being away from football for four years after high school, he adapted so quickly that Brees, his first NFL quarterback, said, "Antonio is the example by which every tight end would want to run their routes."
Gates would have preferred the NBA route. He squared the psychology of being told he couldn't play his favorite sport as a pro by using roundball fundamentals. He viewed tight end positioning as making basketball post-up moves.
Gates, a lefty, was a remarkable basketball player and physical specimen at Kent State. One of his notable teammates, Trevor Huffman, said he was built like "a hybrid of Muhammad Ali and Charles Barkley."
Kent State's Antonio Gates beats Miami's Danny Horace to a second-half rebound on Monday, Feb 3, 2003, in Kent.
The grandson of a pro prizefighter, Antonio himself laced up in Golden Gloves boxing while growing up in Detroit .
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Huffman described Gates' pet move on offense: "An Allen Iverson crossover out of a triple-threat stance." Imagine that and, say, a bigger, more athletic Ray Lewis coming at you.
Gates' play helped lead Kent State to the 2002 NCAA Elite Eight. His last game as a Golden Flash was in the National Invitation Tournament on March 19, 2003.
Kent State's Antonio Gates defends Ohio's Brandon Hunter in the first half of a MAC Tournament game March 14, 2003, in Cleveland, Ohio.
That gave him time to work out for NFL teams preparing for the April 26-27 draft.
He wasn't a complete gridiron unknown.
After making a name at Detroit Central High School, he enrolled at Michigan State intending to play football for Nick Saban and basketball for Tom Izzo. He wound up doing neither. Saban insisted he stick to football, forget about offense, and train to play in the defensive front seven.
Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 inductee Antonio Gates speaks at a press conference following NFL Honors, Feb. 6, 2025, at Saenger Theatre, in New Orleans.
That was the end of Antonio's appetite for East Lansing. He headed back toward Detroit to play basketball at Eastern Michigan. In the 1999-2000 season, he averaged 10 points and seven rebounds for a 15-13 team that lost to Kent State twice.
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He transferred to Kent State and spent two years putting his jersey number, 44, in the MAC Center gym rafters.
Now and then, he took a 3-point shot. In every game, playing forward at a most menacing 6-foot-3, he was a destroyer.
In 2002, Kent State rolled through the Mid-American Conference and made the 2002 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. In the third win, in overtime against Pitt, Gates had team highs in points and rebounds. He and Wally Szczerbiak stand as the two biggest March Madness names in MAC history, but Wally's ride, with Miami , was over in the 1999 Sweet 16.
Kent State's Antonio Gates, center, secures a second-half rebound against Alabama's Erwin Dudley in an NCAA Tournament South Regional second-round game March 16, 2002, in Greenville, S.C. Kent's John Edwards is on the left.
Gates' next season wasn't great, but it was pretty good, and there were NFL scouts in the bleachers.
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The Browns knew about him but didn't draft him. Their 2003 picks were Jeff Faine, Chaun Thompson, Chris Crocker, Lee Suggs, Ryan Pontbriand, Michael Lehan and Antonio Garay.
They can be excused, perhaps, in that nobody else drafted Gates, either. Not "risking" a late pick to secure Gates, though, had complicated consequences.
Going undrafted allowed him to choose from among the teams that came at him in the undrafted rookie market. San Diego offered warmth, an ocean and Marty.
The tight ends picked in the 2003 draft were, in order, Dallas Clark, Benny Joppru, L.J. Smith, Jason Witten , Mark Seldman, Visanthe Schianco, George Wrightster, Dan Curley, Donald Lee, Aaron Walker , Trent Smith, Spencer Nead and Richard Angulo.
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The Rams could have had Gates at No. 254, but they went with Angulo, who played for Western New Mexico, which lost its last six games after beating Sul Ross State.
The Browns could have had Gates at No. 236, but they had given up the pick a year earlier in a trade with the Chargers for Steve Heiden, a tight end Schottenheimer didn't love.
Witten had an exemplary career, with 13,046 receiving yards (second to Tony Gonzalez's 15,127 among tight ends) and 74 touchdowns. Clark (5,665 yards, 53 TDs) played 11 NFL seasons. Heiden actually made it to an 11-year pro career (1,689 yards, 14 TDs), including eight years with the Browns.
Gates became an undrafted underdog for the ages.
Tight end Antonio Gates of the Los Angeles Chargers laughs and gestures during warm-ups for a game against Washington on Dec. 10, 2017, at StubHub Center in Carson, California.
He scored 116 touchdowns, tops all-time among tight ends, ahead of Gonzalez's 111. He racked up 11,841 receiving yards, fourth among tights end behind Gonzalez's 15,127, Witten's 13,046 and Travis Kelce 's 12,151.
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Newsome, who reached the Hall of Fame in 1999, played all of his 13 seasons for Cleveland . He was the No. 1 tight end in receiving yards, with 7,987, when he retired after the 1990 season. He scored 47 touchdowns.
Another 1980s' tight end in the Hall, Kellen Winslow (6,741 yards and 45 TDs), used a basketball analogy to describe Gates in a 2016 interview with the Detroit Free Press:
"Antonio's situation and mine were very similar … an athlete in a mismatch … a bigger body on a smaller body, like he's rebounding," said Winslow, who also starred with the Chargers. "He gets in great position, he understands space, he understands his cuts. When he gets in close space, he's able to use that body to get separation.
"Not having played those four years of football in college added years onto the back end of his career."
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When Gates came through Kent State, Butch Davis was the Browns coach and personnel czar. Davis valued tight ends in his offense and unfortunately did not allow for what Gates, right under his nose but not playing football at Kent State, might become.
Gates began catching on late in his rookie year of 2003, accumulating 10 catches and 181 yards in December games against the Packers and Steelers.
Gates became a steady force for the Chargers, missing only three games in his first seven seasons. He was in his sixth year when quarterback Philip Rivers targeted him nine times in a game at Cleveland; Gates caught eight of the passes for 167 yards.
He soldiered on through the years for Chargers teams that mostly were competitive.
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Gates played his first two seasons with Brees as the No. 1 quarterback. After that, for a long time, it was Rivers.
San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates (85) celebrates his first quarter touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals during their NFL football game in San Diego, California October 3, 2010. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)
The 2006 Chargers went 14-2 and had New England on the ropes in the playoffs. A 12-yard catch by Gates set up a 1-yard LaDainian Tomlinson touchdown run to provide a 21-13 lead with 8:35 left.
Tom Brady drove the Patriots to a touchdown and two-point conversion and then to a field goal that put the Chargers in a 24-21 hole with 1:11 left.
Two catches by Gates helped get the Chargers in position for a 54-yard field goal that could send it to overtime. Nate Kaeding missed. Rather than facing the Colts in the AFC finals, Schottenheimer got fired … yes, after a 14-2 regular season.
Los Angeles Chargers tight end Antonio Gates runs after a catch against the Baltimore Ravens in a AFC Wild Card game Jan. 6, 2019, in Baltimore, MD.
Gates and Rivers got to the NFL the same year. For Rivers, it was as a No. 4 overall pick. The Chargers had the No. 1 overall pick and spent it on Eli Manning , who didn't want to play in San Diego and was traded to the Giants an hour later.
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Rivers went on to post a 123-101 regular-season record as the Chargers' starter. Manning's record with the Giants was 117-117. Based on winning two Super Bowls, though, Manning joined Gates as a 2025 Hall of Fame finalist, but he didn't get in.
Rivers was all for Gates making it.
"For a long time we had the Gates Rule," Rivers said. "Here's the play, here's the read, but remember the Gates Rule, that he can probably beat anybody."
San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates (85) and quarterback Philip Rivers look on during warmups before a preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks on Aug. 8, 2013, in San Diego, California.
Mike McCoy, who was Gates' head coach from 2013-16, said, "Rivers to Gates is one of the best tandems in NFL history."
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Brees was the QB when Gates made an unforgettable play at Cleveland in 2004. It was so cold and nasty that Brees threw only six passes. One was a 72-yard touchdown to Gates, who said his first thought after scoring was to sprint to a sideline heater.
Gates was still getting open in 2016 when, at 36, he made eight catches in a game at Cleveland.
Often, he played a key role in games that were important only to the Chargers. For example, in his 11th season, against Jim Harbaugh's 49ers, he caught two touchdown passes in a 38-35 win.
Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 inductee Antonio Gates speaks at a news conference after NFL Honors, Feb. 6, 2025, at Saenger Theatre, in New Orleans.
One of the Chargers' offensive coaches then was Nick Sirianni, the former Mount Union receiver who now is head coach of the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles. Gates was 39 when he considered coming out of retirement to play for the Colts, whose offensive coordinator was Sirianni.
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Gates' lack of playoff success — the Chargers' record was 5-7 in his postseason games — may help explain why he didn't make the Hall of Fame in 2024, the first year he was eligible. Voters may have taken into account the fact he was suspended for the first four games of his 13th season after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
His final game was in the playoffs on Jan. 13, 2019. The Chargers lost to eventual Super Bowl champ New England. Gates did what got him to Canton, catching a touchdown pass.
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com .
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Antonio Gates unlikely path to Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025
