Countdown to 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement: Antonio Gates
Enshrinement
Published on : 8/2/2025
By Jim Trotter
Special to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
It wasn’t surprising when the San Diego Chargers asked rookie tight end ANTONIO GATES to follow the lead of veteran teammate Stephen Alexander. The year was 2003 and Alexander had gone to the Pro Bowl a few years earlier. While not spectacular, he was dependable as a pass-catcher and run-blocker, traits that are valued by nearly every NFL coach.
Gates was unproven. He went undrafted after not playing football in college. Instead, he followed his heart to the hardwood, where he led Kent State University to the Elite Eight as a junior. Basketball was clearly his first love, but the NBA doesn’t have much room for 6-foot-4 power forwards, so he set his sights on the NFL and a sport he had not played since high school.
At times, the transition was like dribbling a football.
“I didn’t know what I was doing out there,” Gates said recently, laughing at the memory. “I would get cursed out so much. They would always tell me to do it like Stephen. Be like Stephen Alexander. Be like Stephen Alexander. He was solid, but I always subscribed to the concept that good is the enemy of great, and I was trying to be great.”
He didn’t just try, he earned a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025, leaving a stamp on the game as few others have. He ranks No. 1 all time among tight ends in touchdown receptions (116), games with multiple touchdown catches (21), touchdown receptions on third down (39) and seasons with eight touchdown catches or more (8).
Forty-three of his touchdowns were go-ahead scores, which, according to Elias Sports Bureau, is the most by a tight end in NFL history. And 651 of his 955 career receptions went for a first down or a touchdown. That achievement should not be glossed over. Said another way, nearly seven of every 10 receptions either moved the chains or reached the end zone.
But Gates’ impact is not defined simply by what he did. It’s also about how he did it. In a world of straight lines and right angles when it came to route running, he was Mr. Squiggly Line, using shoulder wiggles and reverse pivots to create space and open passing windows.
“I felt like I changed the position, in a sense,” he said. “Respectfully to all the other guys who played the position, I created a dynamic. I created a lane that teams actually implement now. I see them showing guys how to break off routes and use pivots, and that’s what I was doing in ’03 to get open. But I was getting cursed out because it wasn’t standard. It wasn’t anything they had seen.”
Opponents never did figure him out. What they didn’t know is that he was playing chess to their checkers. Gates was consistently a move or two ahead. He picks up the story here:
“I remember catching like a 60-yard touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys, and I ran a deep over against a Cover 2,” he said. “Most guys would just get off and run a deep over. I was so good at running pivots that I faked like I was running a pivot, drawing in the defender, and then it became like backyard football, if you will. I was wide open. That creativity just became my staple. My quarterback, Philip Rivers, knew I was going to do it, and I knew the timing of the quarterback. I knew how much time I had to do whatever it was that I was going to do. So, it became a staple of who I was, and they let me do it.”
There was no defending Gates with one player. He was too agile and fast for linebackers and too big for safeties and defensive backs. Add to that his understanding of leverage and how to create space from his days on the basketball court, and he regularly left Hall of Fame defensive backs like Champ Bailey shaking their heads respectfully.
“Antonio was a problem,” Bailey said.
For quarterbacks, however, he was a blessing.
“There are only a handful of guys that you could say that at any time, at any situation in the game, no matter who is covering him, I know that I can count on him, I know that he’ll get open, I know that he will find a way, and I know that he will make the play,” said Drew Brees, the Chargers’ QB during Gates’ 2003-05 seasons.
“Few tight ends draw a corner to cover them in critical situations, but Gates was one of those guys who required that level of attention from the defense — and it still didn’t work most of the time.”
Gates chuckles when he reflects on his career because he never envisioned the path it would take. His only goal after signing with the Chargers was to make the practice squad because he believed it would give him time to develop. He knew he had a lot to learn, but would the coaches give him time to show what he could do.
“It was probably the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been in my life,” he said of his first training camp. “I was fearful because I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t played in college, so, really, it was like I was coming out of high school. I would call home all the time and talk to my basketball coach and ask, ‘Coach, what is the team saying? Am I going to make the team?’ And he would say, ‘I don’t know yet.’
“I remember the speeches that (head coach) Marty Schottenheimer would give us: ‘You can’t make the club in the tub.’ I took that literally. You cannot get hurt or you’re going to be cut. It’s simple. It doesn’t matter how well you’re playing. I used that as fuel. I dislocated my finger in the first practice, and I could hear his words in my mind. I went to our trainer, James Collins, and told him he had to pop it back into place because I can’t get cut.
“It’s one of those things where, when you’re all in, you’ll be surprised what you’re capable of doing. I was doing Plan B, and I didn’t have a Plan C or D. I was telling myself that I can’t go back to Detroit.”
Gates might have felt uneasy, but he never felt overwhelmed. Beneath the fear was a confidence that comes from excelling at every level of athletics. He was a decorated dual-sport athlete at Detroit Central High School, starting for three years in football and four years in basketball. As a senior, he led the Trailblazers to a state basketball championship.
He initially enrolled at Michigan State, where he planned to play football and basketball, but transferred after football coach Nick Saban balked at him being a two-sport athlete. That set him on a threes school journey that ultimately concluded at Kent State. Interestingly, however, it was his short stint with the Spartans that contributed to his belief he could make it professionally in football.
“I knew some guys from Michigan State who had gone in the second round of the NFL draft,” Gates said. “Plaxico Burress, Julian Peterson, T.J. Duckett, Charles Rogers — these are guys that I was in the same space with. They all went first round. Chris Baker, a tight end who went to the Jets in the third round. People identified me with that group of people at that time. With all due respect to Chris Baker and guys that went pro, I knew I was better than him when I watched him play and we were around each other.”
While some viewed his decision to focus on football as a gamble, an even bigger roll of the dice was his decision to add his own creativity to route running. To that point, coaches had treated route running as if it were painting by numbers. Precision was everything. A 12-yard out route meant making the break at 12 yards, not 10 or 11.
Gates took liberties with that. He believed if he could get a defender to turn his hips before the break, he had the size and strength to pick up the extra yards if he made his break early. Stated another way, he believed the coaches would take production over perfection, and he was correct.
“I was always essentially undersized in the game of basketball, so creating space was a gift of mine — to create space to get my shot off,” Gates explained. “It was essentially just turning people’s hips to get them in a different direction before I made my decision. The (Chargers) coaches would tell me to run a 16-yard in or a 12-yard out, but once I got you to turn your hips, I was doing what I needed to do.
“I would grade out bad in meetings, because I was not as deep as I was supposed to be, but I was so productive that it became, ‘Don’t anyone else do what Gates does. He’s got his own thing. This is what I need y’all to do.’”
First-year players picked up on it quickly. During the annual rookie show at training camp, players would mock the staff for the obvious double standard. “The reality was that I just had a feel,” Gates said. “I played the game within the game. It was just one of those things. It was what made the person.”
It also was what made him a Hall of Famer.
Special to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
It wasn’t surprising when the San Diego Chargers asked rookie tight end ANTONIO GATES to follow the lead of veteran teammate Stephen Alexander. The year was 2003 and Alexander had gone to the Pro Bowl a few years earlier. While not spectacular, he was dependable as a pass-catcher and run-blocker, traits that are valued by nearly every NFL coach.
Gates was unproven. He went undrafted after not playing football in college. Instead, he followed his heart to the hardwood, where he led Kent State University to the Elite Eight as a junior. Basketball was clearly his first love, but the NBA doesn’t have much room for 6-foot-4 power forwards, so he set his sights on the NFL and a sport he had not played since high school.
At times, the transition was like dribbling a football.
“I didn’t know what I was doing out there,” Gates said recently, laughing at the memory. “I would get cursed out so much. They would always tell me to do it like Stephen. Be like Stephen Alexander. Be like Stephen Alexander. He was solid, but I always subscribed to the concept that good is the enemy of great, and I was trying to be great.”
He didn’t just try, he earned a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025, leaving a stamp on the game as few others have. He ranks No. 1 all time among tight ends in touchdown receptions (116), games with multiple touchdown catches (21), touchdown receptions on third down (39) and seasons with eight touchdown catches or more (8).
Forty-three of his touchdowns were go-ahead scores, which, according to Elias Sports Bureau, is the most by a tight end in NFL history. And 651 of his 955 career receptions went for a first down or a touchdown. That achievement should not be glossed over. Said another way, nearly seven of every 10 receptions either moved the chains or reached the end zone.
But Gates’ impact is not defined simply by what he did. It’s also about how he did it. In a world of straight lines and right angles when it came to route running, he was Mr. Squiggly Line, using shoulder wiggles and reverse pivots to create space and open passing windows.
“I felt like I changed the position, in a sense,” he said. “Respectfully to all the other guys who played the position, I created a dynamic. I created a lane that teams actually implement now. I see them showing guys how to break off routes and use pivots, and that’s what I was doing in ’03 to get open. But I was getting cursed out because it wasn’t standard. It wasn’t anything they had seen.”
Opponents never did figure him out. What they didn’t know is that he was playing chess to their checkers. Gates was consistently a move or two ahead. He picks up the story here:
“I remember catching like a 60-yard touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys, and I ran a deep over against a Cover 2,” he said. “Most guys would just get off and run a deep over. I was so good at running pivots that I faked like I was running a pivot, drawing in the defender, and then it became like backyard football, if you will. I was wide open. That creativity just became my staple. My quarterback, Philip Rivers, knew I was going to do it, and I knew the timing of the quarterback. I knew how much time I had to do whatever it was that I was going to do. So, it became a staple of who I was, and they let me do it.”
There was no defending Gates with one player. He was too agile and fast for linebackers and too big for safeties and defensive backs. Add to that his understanding of leverage and how to create space from his days on the basketball court, and he regularly left Hall of Fame defensive backs like Champ Bailey shaking their heads respectfully.
“Antonio was a problem,” Bailey said.
For quarterbacks, however, he was a blessing.
“There are only a handful of guys that you could say that at any time, at any situation in the game, no matter who is covering him, I know that I can count on him, I know that he’ll get open, I know that he will find a way, and I know that he will make the play,” said Drew Brees, the Chargers’ QB during Gates’ 2003-05 seasons.
“Few tight ends draw a corner to cover them in critical situations, but Gates was one of those guys who required that level of attention from the defense — and it still didn’t work most of the time.”
Gates chuckles when he reflects on his career because he never envisioned the path it would take. His only goal after signing with the Chargers was to make the practice squad because he believed it would give him time to develop. He knew he had a lot to learn, but would the coaches give him time to show what he could do.
“It was probably the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been in my life,” he said of his first training camp. “I was fearful because I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t played in college, so, really, it was like I was coming out of high school. I would call home all the time and talk to my basketball coach and ask, ‘Coach, what is the team saying? Am I going to make the team?’ And he would say, ‘I don’t know yet.’
“I remember the speeches that (head coach) Marty Schottenheimer would give us: ‘You can’t make the club in the tub.’ I took that literally. You cannot get hurt or you’re going to be cut. It’s simple. It doesn’t matter how well you’re playing. I used that as fuel. I dislocated my finger in the first practice, and I could hear his words in my mind. I went to our trainer, James Collins, and told him he had to pop it back into place because I can’t get cut.
“It’s one of those things where, when you’re all in, you’ll be surprised what you’re capable of doing. I was doing Plan B, and I didn’t have a Plan C or D. I was telling myself that I can’t go back to Detroit.”
Gates might have felt uneasy, but he never felt overwhelmed. Beneath the fear was a confidence that comes from excelling at every level of athletics. He was a decorated dual-sport athlete at Detroit Central High School, starting for three years in football and four years in basketball. As a senior, he led the Trailblazers to a state basketball championship.
He initially enrolled at Michigan State, where he planned to play football and basketball, but transferred after football coach Nick Saban balked at him being a two-sport athlete. That set him on a threes school journey that ultimately concluded at Kent State. Interestingly, however, it was his short stint with the Spartans that contributed to his belief he could make it professionally in football.
“I knew some guys from Michigan State who had gone in the second round of the NFL draft,” Gates said. “Plaxico Burress, Julian Peterson, T.J. Duckett, Charles Rogers — these are guys that I was in the same space with. They all went first round. Chris Baker, a tight end who went to the Jets in the third round. People identified me with that group of people at that time. With all due respect to Chris Baker and guys that went pro, I knew I was better than him when I watched him play and we were around each other.”
While some viewed his decision to focus on football as a gamble, an even bigger roll of the dice was his decision to add his own creativity to route running. To that point, coaches had treated route running as if it were painting by numbers. Precision was everything. A 12-yard out route meant making the break at 12 yards, not 10 or 11.
Gates took liberties with that. He believed if he could get a defender to turn his hips before the break, he had the size and strength to pick up the extra yards if he made his break early. Stated another way, he believed the coaches would take production over perfection, and he was correct.
“I was always essentially undersized in the game of basketball, so creating space was a gift of mine — to create space to get my shot off,” Gates explained. “It was essentially just turning people’s hips to get them in a different direction before I made my decision. The (Chargers) coaches would tell me to run a 16-yard in or a 12-yard out, but once I got you to turn your hips, I was doing what I needed to do.
“I would grade out bad in meetings, because I was not as deep as I was supposed to be, but I was so productive that it became, ‘Don’t anyone else do what Gates does. He’s got his own thing. This is what I need y’all to do.’”
First-year players picked up on it quickly. During the annual rookie show at training camp, players would mock the staff for the obvious double standard. “The reality was that I just had a feel,” Gates said. “I played the game within the game. It was just one of those things. It was what made the person.”
It also was what made him a Hall of Famer.
More on the Class of 2025 Enshrinement
- Countdown to 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement: Eric Allen
- Countdown to 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement: Jared Allen
- Countdown to 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement: Antonio Gates
- Countdown to 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement: Sterling Sharpe
- "Knock on the Door": Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 members get the big news
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