Antonio Gates, Former NFL Tight End

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-Track all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey. 2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. Now joining us live on set in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. He's one of the greatest tight ends in the history of the NFL and that of course is Antonio Gates, Chargers legend, NFL legend, and Antonio Gates joins us right now. Antonio, always appreciate the time.

Thanks so much for coming on. How are you? I'm good, man. How you doing? Well, I'm doing fantastic.

So, there's no good way to go about this, right? This is like the awkward moment whenever people sit down and interview you today. Full disclosure, when we scheduled you last week, I said this is going to be awesome. He's going to get the announcement on Thursday. He's going to be a Hall of Famer on Friday.

It's going to be great. I was shocked, shocked last night. I couldn't believe it.

It makes no sense. Yeah, well, it made both of us but I think reality is that, you know, you try to learn from this situation, right? To me, I've always felt like time was everything and in due time, things will happen the way they're supposed to happen. Unfortunately, the disheartening part about all of it was just to me, the pain of not being able to go in and get in that call but more importantly, like the people who went through this journey with me, the family, the friends, just me feeling like I let them down. And I think that's the pain part because I know they wanted it bad. I know they know I put in the work from a sacrificial standpoint. So, you know, at the end of the day, you win, you win and you succeed in certain things and certain things you don't but every single day you get up and you move forward whether or not you do it, you succeed or not.

And I think that's the main approach that you need to take in this type of circumstance. And I remember, I know Dwight Freaney well, so congratulations to Dwight obviously. I actually got a text from him, that's my guy too. But I said the same thing to Dwight last year. I was like, I couldn't believe he didn't get in. I couldn't believe it either. And then it happens the next year and it's a weird process.

I said, Dwight Freaney didn't get in? I know, right. It's crazy. I said the same thing. And for someone like you, everyone, you say there's some people that get called legendary and it's like, all right, they're not really a legend. You are actually with your story and what you did on a football field, you're a legend. So we all know it's inevitable.

We all know it's going to happen. But it's just a weird spot because you retired five years ago. There's nothing you could do to continue on the stats and add on to that, nor should you need to. So it puts you in just like an awkward position. It does, man. You know, like I said, man, it's one of those things is just you control what you can control. And I think that's you doing what you know. And every single day you being who you are at the end of the day. I don't know if one moment can define a person. You know, I don't believe that. And I don't know if someone else's perspective can define a person. I think my journey, especially in his own right, just like the guys who went in their journey, especially in his own right. And like I said, man, due time, you know, things probably would happen.

Just have to be patient and timing is everything. And everyone's going to try to be like a genius today, Antonio Gates, and tell you why you didn't get in and try to come up with these theories. The only theory I have, and it once again goes to the process, is that, you know, whoever was presenting you, right, it's the Chargers. So it's not one of these big flashy teams. Like if you, let's be real, you played for the Cowboys. You played for the Packers, like one of these iconic legendary brands. You would have been in no questions asked.

So I just wonder if it's more of the process that kind of gets exposed in this because maybe I'm wrong on this. Like when T.O. didn't get in, I thought it was bullcrap.

I think that the writers were just sticking it to him because maybe they thought he wasn't the greatest teammate or he didn't talk to them. I don't think anyone's really ever had a difficult post-game experience with you in the locker room. Am I wrong on that? No, you're not. I know. I think so. That's what's, you know, it's always hard to wrap your head around things when you don't understand them. I think, you know, believing in what's right and what's going to happen is more importantly, you don't lose belief. You don't lose faith. You know what I mean? I think it's just it becomes the timing.

Yes. Unfortunately, next year, it'll be another great group of guys coming in. That's a very elite group to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a very exclusive and elite group. Just hopefully I've done enough to be mentioned in that in that realm of people. All right. I'll ask you one more Hall of Fame question, then I'll stop bugging you about this stuff as Antonio Gates is here with us. Did you genuinely like because the last few years they used to right have David Baker knock on your door.

All right. You're in the Hall of Fame like the night before everything goes down or actually a few hours before everything goes down. The last few years I've seen that they've had players like come to people's houses. Did you genuinely find out last night that you weren't getting into the Hall of Fame or is it something you knew the last few days? Well, you know, they did tell you before actually the day, you know, because I think, you know, I guess I don't know. God was just getting mad that they would come with their families and everything and give them an option to still come, you know, if they didn't make it.

I think some guys don't know they're going into those are the guys that they probably don't call, you know. Yeah, it makes sense. So I don't know what the form is.

I don't know really what the formula is. I got the news prior to yesterday, though, so I knew and I think the shocking part for me was, I mean, you know, I've been through a lot in terms of like just the sports in general because I was a basketball player, but I think what was surprising, I was telling somebody this earlier, I couldn't believe how hurt I was. Like, you know, because, you know, it's one thing to not get, you know, not win a Super Bowl or whatever, or you get to the, I don't know what it was that made it so painful, you know, like because it's just, I'm stepping stone, right? I'm closer than what I was before. That's all I see.

All I'm saying is your focus and your destination is to get to a certain place, right? So, you know, I don't know why it was such a very, very disturbing pain, sharp, disturbing pain, because I just felt like, damn, this is crazy. You know, I actually had, I went and laid down, and I'm like emotional. I'm like, this is crazy.

Why am I so hurt? Then I thought about it. I said, you know, because I put in so much work. I put in so, because my degree of difficulty, unlike any other player that ever played the game, it's just what it is.

It's not me saying it in no egotistic way. It's what, I had to come from a free agent to be a starter as a rookie. Starting in the NFL as a rookie is already hard, but I guess being a basketball free agent is even harder to start. I was a starter as a rookie. I went to the Pro Bowl as a second year. So for me not to be a basketball player, let alone if I was just a free agent or just a regular college kid, if a guy was CJ Stroughton's doing and they won rookie of the year, that's what I was doing.

You deserved it. But they was number one and number, they were both first rounders, right? So next year he got to go to the Pro Bowl. Well, he did go to the Pro Bowl, but next year, you understand what I'm saying? I was doing that as a free agent, but still with no basketball, no football. So that meant I had to do something so eye-warming to the coaches that have forced them to say, you know what, he's a basketball player, start him. Do you understand what you got to do to become a starter, let alone as a free agent to become? But what if you didn't even play? You know, that'd be like, you're just getting up and going to play for the Lakers. And then you'd be like, man, guess what? He's starting. You know what I'm saying?

Do you know what you have to overcome? If I was playing for the Lakers, it's because I can throw some elbows and pops out. That's about it. It would be like that kind of concept is like, so I understand sports to the core because I was a basketball player. I just, that part is what probably the thing I'm like, damn, what did I do wrong?

Nothing. Because I just, I felt like my range was such a difficult thing to do. And I'm not, like I said, I'm not saying it because I'm just saying for me as a person, I just know how hard it is to play in the national football league. I know how hard it is to make a team. Let alone, I know how hard it is to start. Then I know how hard it is to be a franchise guy, because I had to go to those layers and then staying at that level, right? So now you're talking, a guy that's done all that and try to do it at a, that means you take time for it, you take time from your family, you lose friendships along the way.

You're not with your wife and kids. You're spending so much time into perfecting something. I remember preparing to the point where I wouldn't worry about playing. I was worried about playing well, understand what I'm saying? So I prepared to play well because those guys were dependent on me. And I just never wanted to let them down. I felt like, damn, I didn't do it.

I didn't go in. I let y'all down. You know what I mean? So despite all that sacrificing and hours of when guys would leave and I stayed, that's, those are what that meant to me. Those are what Hall of Famer guys mean to me. Like superstars are just guys who play at a high level. To me, when you become a Hall of Famer, you've done it for so long. You prepared at a level.

It comes with a stigma of you, you don't have as much time to spend with your family, kids. And I think I, you know, I know I did that. A Peanut Butter M&M's Production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-TRAC all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe, available early 2024. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? Been almost 30 years and I still don't know.

Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world, and we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game of the latest failed entry in my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz, please.

Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You know what I mean? Because I've seen myself look back on it like, man, all them days of just being there and practicing and training and training and training, I still feel short.

How could that be possible? As a human, I want to know what I did wrong. And you know what the unfortunate part is? This Hall of Fame class, it's nothing about the guys that are going in. It's going to be remembered as, wow, Antonio Gates didn't get it.

It's just the way I've covered this stuff long enough. That's more people last night on social media I saw were saying, can't believe Antonio Gates didn't get in compared to, oh, congratulations to this guy. Congratulations to that guy. Congratulations to that guy.

So you know what? You're going to get in. It's slam dunk, no pun intended, that you will be a Hall of Famer, and I'm just shocked that we're sitting here today. Let me ask you about the current group of the Chargers. Jim Harbaugh, you got to be excited, right? It seems like that's a big time move that puts the Chargers on the map in LA. Yeah, he's a proven commodity.

I mean, what's not to like about that choice? He's proven it in the pro level too. So I've watched him turn the San Francisco 49ers team around. He has a history of being able to transform quarterbacks and making them play at the max of their potential.

I watched him take a Michigan team and win a national championship when I know Alabama team was a better team physically and talent-wise. So that means he understands how to get the max out of his players, and I think that's what it comes down to in the pro level, is how can you find a way to get your guys to buy in? And now you take a winning, a proven winning coach who has the respect that he has, and obviously the accolades that he has, I'm sure those guys will buy in.

Not to say that the coach who we had before, he couldn't do that, but I guess when you start losing games, you can lose those kind of things. And I think now, I'm excited, the fans are excited, the city excited. You hear the vibe that's around surrounding Los Angeles, so we're all excited about Jim and what he's able to do with a guy like Justin Keenan, and hopefully we bring Austin back. If not, whatever we do, we have weapons to be here next year. We're in New Orleans. And you know what? Your teams when you played, I know Sean Merriman well.

He comes on in New York City all the time. He was trying to tell me the other day that the Euro team in 07 was better than the 07 Patriots. I said in 2006, maybe it was the 14 and two year I had.

You had a great point. That team was better. The Patriots got lucky. Not in 07, but the guys that you had, Merriman, LT, you, and those powder blue uniforms, man. I grew up as a kid on Long Island.

Every single kid had an LT jersey, had an Antonio Gates jersey, because that powder blue was just so unique. Well, hey, we got a rap because we have a hard out at the top of the hour and I already start to hear the music. It's like the Grammys. They're going to start fading the music up, and they're going to try to get us off the set. I wish you nothing but the best, and I know that this was tough, but next year we're having a party in New Orleans.

Vegas, it's a good time to have a party. I'd rather get some gumbo, though, in New Orleans, and we'll get you in the Hall of Fame next year. He's Antonio Gates. This is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio.

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-Track all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai. There's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? Been almost 30 years and I still don't know.

Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world, and we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game of the latest failed entry in my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz, please. Listen on the Odyssey app wherever you get your podcasts.