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SAN DIEGO -- Antonio Gates recalls Nick Saban telling him hed one day be an NFL first-round draft pick and that he could play both football and his beloved basketball at Michigan State. Cheap Air Max Plus China .Neither happened.Yet heres Gates, the former basketball star from Kent State, needing three touchdown catches to break Tony Gonzalezs NFL record of 111 for a tight end.Being 6-foot-4 and weighing 250 pounds, Gates knows he made the right choice in going to the NFL rather than trying to pursue an NBA career.Still, for every pass hes caught from Drew Brees, Doug Flutie, Philip Rivers and even LaDainian Tomlinson, Gates always has basketball in the back of his mind.Thats the part thats kind of like the chip on my shoulder when I play, Gates said. In my mind, Id be thinking, `I wish I would have given it a chance, to see what would have happened. But its hard to see it because of the success over time playing football. Its kind of hard to say now.But I think thats what drives me still to this day is because I know I didnt give my heart a chance to do what I wanted to do. So Im like, `OK, well, somebodys going to pay for it. If Ive got to play 15, 18 years, to get all the records, thats what drives you, when people cant see you for what you were.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 on Nov. 9, 2003.It was against Minnesota. From Doug Flutie, Gates said. Drew Brees was here and I guess he kind of didnt 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.Rivers first start was opening night in 2006 at Oakland. In the fourth quarter, he hit Gates on a 4-yard corner route. Rivers threw only 11 passes that night, two to Gates.I was fired up, obviously, to throw a touchdown in my first start, Rivers said. I remember going up to him and saying, `Hey, thats the first of many. And he was kind of like, `Get out of here. I havent got a ball all day. I dont want to hear that.Now you look back and however many its been between he and I, and hes right there at 109. It is special. I want it for him more than anything, and I think he wants it as well. Certainly when given the opportunity Im going to try my hardest to get him into the end zone three more times, at least.When Gates joined the Chargers he hadnt played a down of football since his senior season at Detroits Central High. Saban recruited Gates to Michigan State. Gates left after a year because Saban wouldnt let him play basketball.We didnt see eye to eye. I felt he sat in front of my momma and my father and said I could do both, said Gates, who had grown up idolizing Michigans Fab Five. I told him, `I came here to do both. He said, `No, football. `After playing at two junior colleges, Gates ended up starring in hoops at Kent State. Along the way he was noticing that 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 third-round pick of Tampa Bay in 2001. Smith had two interceptions of Oaklands Rich Gannon, the league MVP, in the Bucs Super Bowl win at San Diegos Qualcomm Stadium in January 2003.Thats how it started, Gates said.He mentioned former Michigan State players T.J. Duckett, Charles Rogers, Julius Peterson, Dimitrius Underwood and Plaxico Burress. All first-rounders.Wait a minute, something aint adding up, Gates said. This is my circle and everybodys getting drafted.So now Nick Saban, what he had told me, started to make sense at that point, Gates said. Because he told me I was a first-rounder. He swore up and down Id go first round if I just played football. I was like, `Uh, I dont want to hear that. You just want me out there. I dont want to hear that, Nick Saban. You just dont want me on the basketball court.But I loved basketball. That was my heart. Its like going to the prom, man. Youve got two girls and you love one and she dont show you no attention and you have to go out of your way. Youre trying to get her attention. And then heres a girl whos just wanting to go to prom with you: `Love you, like your height. You smell good, ` Gates said with a laugh. Thats how football was. Everything was great. `You tall, you fast. You big. And basketball was like, `Uh, can you do it at this level? It was always the ifs ands and buts when it came to basketball. Golly, no matter what I do, I average 20 points a game and they were like, `Do it against Kentucky. I had 27 on that. I had 33 on Boston College. `But can you do it consistently on this level?Football was like, nothing I did was bad. Ultimately it wears on you. It wears on your confidence.Gates had a daughter at the time and made what he felt was the safest choice: the NFL. All these years later, hes certainly erased the doubters.I think its great. Im not surprised, either, said Gonzalez, who plans to congratulate Gates via Twitter when he breaks the touchdown mark.The two were division rivals for six seasons when Gonzalez was with the Kansas City Chiefs.He pushed me to the limit to be the best tight end I could be, said Gonzalez, a studio analyst for CBS NFL Today.Id like to think I did the same. There was always that competition of who could outperform who in the game.Gonzalez also played college hoops, at California, and like Gates picked the NFL over a possible NBA career.I love that he made the right decision, Gonzalez said. With the legacy hes set, hes right there with the other guy from that franchise, Kellen Winslow, two of best to ever put on cleats and play the tight end position.---Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/berniewilson---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Cheap Air Max Plus . The team also announced Tuesday that the Braves will wear a commemorative patch on the right sleeve during the season. The patch, shaped like home plate, carries the number 715, Aarons autograph and a "40th Anniversary" banner. Cheap Air Max Plus Mens . -- The proud fathers huddled near the Dallas Stars dressing room, smiling, laughing and telling stories while wearing replica green sweaters of their sons team. http://www.cheapairmaxplus.net/ . -- The Magic have their first victory of the new year.Normally the Playoff Hockey Challenge is but a small percentage of the great marathon that is the NHL season. Not so in this lockout-shortened campaign. This season, the Playoff Hockey Challenge will come with almost equal bragging rights to your regular fantasy hockey pool. In fact, if a team captures the cup while playing in four seven-game series, those games would represent more than half of what the NHL regular season was. If you havent participated in the Playoff Hockey Challenge before, this is your season to get into it. We had almost four months of hockey taken away from us earlier this season, and this game is a chance for the fantasy sports fans to reclaim part of that lost time. Dont settle for your fantasy hockey season ending later this month. Extend it through the postseason with the Playoff Hockey Challenge. The Basics This should be easy for those who enjoy playing the Hockey Challenge during the regular season. The rules are very similar to the Hockey Challenge and are consistent with most of your basic salary-cap games. You pick a team of six forwards, four defensemen and two goaltenders under a fantasy budget of $100 million. That team scores you goals, assists, wins and shutout bonuses to carry you to glory. Goals are worth a point, assists are worth a point, wins are worth two points, and goaltenders and defensemen get a bonus point for a shutout. Selecting a team of stars should be relatively easy as the game begins with most forwards drawing a salary just under $9 million, the top defensemen just under $8 million and the goaltenders peaking at $11 million. Do the math and you will notice you are just shy of being able to ice a roster of all the top players in the league. While that may be true, its not always the top players in the league who excel in the playoffs. You get to swap out your team after the first round of the playoffs and again after the conference semifinals, but you dont get to trade out the team after the conference finals. In other words, there is no harm in selecting players from teams that get eliminated in the first or second rounds. But when the playoffs are pared down to the four teams vying for a trip to the Stanley Cup finals, that is your final roster lock. There are no limits to the swapping as long as you stay under $100 million. In theory, you could have 36 different players on your roster during the entirety of the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Remember that all NHL players will be available to all other owners you are competing against, whether in a public, private or fan-based group. Your picks need to be shrewd, calculated and, most of all, pretty lucky. The Details Go for the goaltenders first in this game. Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown led the NHL in playoff scoring last season with 20 points. That means they led all skaters with 20 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Henrik Lundqvist, whose team was eliminated in the conference finals, compiled 23 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge.Jonathan Quick? He had 35 points in the Playoff Hockey Challenge. Evgeni Malkin had to be the seventh-highest scoring forward in NHL playoff history in 2009 to just get 36 points. Goaltenders are where the money is in this game. Pick two good ones and you have a guaranteed 48 points through the first three rounds. Pick two goaltenders who both make the Stanley Cup finals and battle in a seven-game series there? Thats 62 points, not counting shutouts. Brown, Kopitar and Ilya Kovalchuk, who was third in playoff scoring last season, didnt equal that number combined. Air Max Plus For Sale Cheap. Longer playoff series provide and advantage, but not for goaltenders. Goaltenders cannot win more than four games in a series and get zero points if their team loses. Goalies are somewhat capped for points during this game, but there is no limit on what a skater can do for point production. A skater can score in a loss as much as he pleases. Seven-game series are where the real money is at in this fantasy game. A lot of star players not only score points when their team wins games but also when their team loses. A player competing in seven games, even if three of them are losses, has a much better chance of getting more points than a player in four games that are all wins. Defensemen are still important in this game and there will usually be one or two who stand out during the postseason, but the majority of defensemen will all be bunched between six and 10 points. That isnt enough of a difference to break your bank and not be able to afford a key forward who can get into the mid-20s for points. Besides, would you have predicted Drew Doughty and Bryce Salvador would lead the pack last season? Pick the good defensemen at the start of the game and switch out for the hot ones when you get to repick your team. The ones you picked at the start of the game probably wont be the ones leading the way. Picking the seven-game series ahead of time can be a fools errand, but there are slightly smarter places to place your bets. Of the 25 seven-game series in the first round during the past 12 postseasons, only five were between the No. 1 and No. 8 seeds. The most series that went the distance -- eight of them -- involved the No. 3 seed versus the No. 6 seed. No. 4 versus No. 5 accounted for six Game 7s, and No. 2 against No. 7 made up the other six. Thats a fairly even split, but if you are picking between two players where everything else is even in your mind, lean toward the tighter seeding between the teams. One final point: Treat the bonuses as a bonus. Last season was the first time in several years that shutouts in the regular season were an indicator of shutouts to come in the postseason, with Quick, Lundqvist and Mike Smith all notching three playoff shutouts for bonus points. Only three goaltenders during the 2007 through 2011 NHL playoffs posted more than one playoff shutout after finishing top three in shutouts during the regular season: Tim Thomas in 2011, Antti Niemi in 2010 and Dominik Hasek in 2007. Does that mean Pekka Rinne, Cory Schneiderand Smith are bound for great postseasons? Based on last year, yes. Based on the previous five years, no. That leans toward the conclusion that the bonus points are somewhat unpredictable. That said, Lundqvist and Smith sure do seem to pick up a lot of shutouts. If you like the New York Rangers orPhoenix Coyotes chances (if they make the playoffs), those two particular goaltenders do show personal trends for shutouts. But remember some of these facts: In the 2010 playoffs, Michael Leighton led the way with three shutouts after posting one during the regular season. In the 2009 playoffs, Chris Osgood, Cam Ward, Jonas Hiller and Semyon Varlamov led all goaltenders with two shutouts each. During the preceding regular season, they recorded a combined 12 shutouts. TSN Playoff Hockey Challenge is brought to you by Kia. ' ' '