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.
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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.
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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.
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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. ' ' '