PHOTOS EstevanOriol.com

If you want to talk about the NFL’s best tight ends, then the conversation has to begin with former Kansas City Chief (and now Atlanta Falcon) Tony Gonzalez. For years now he’s been the most prolific player at his position, and he’s cemented his place amongst the greatest tight ends of all time by capturing several records including the single season record for receptions by a tight end. His 6’5” frame, good hands, and excellent hops helped transform him from a NCAA hoopster (he played college basketball at Cal) into an all-pro NFL star. Despite the mega bucks and fame Tony remains down-to-earth, sensible, and driven. Next season he’ll go after the two goals that seem to have eluded him thus far: a Super Bowl ring and 360 goal post slam dunk. We’re confident he’ll attain both.

You have a long list of accomplishments, which are you most proud of?
Probably raising my little boy. He’s my number one accomplishment. He’s turning out to be an incredible kid. I’d like to think that I had something to do with that. ‘Cause anybody can have a baby, but to raise one is what’s more important to me.

You were a great basketball player at Cal but you chose the NFL over the NBA. Was it because you liked to play football more?
No, at that particular point, I loved playing basketball more than football. I enjoyed football don’t get me wrong—I actually love football now—but that’s one of the things that was a simple choice. I could leave early for the NFL draft and be a top first-round draft choice. If I wanted to play basketball professionally, I would have had to stay one more year in college—which I don’t mind staying another year in college, because I enjoyed Berkeley—but then they said that I might not even get drafted. They told me I might be a second round player. I’m a 6’ 4” power forward, so I knew that there was probably not that big of a future for me in basketball, as far as the NBA goes. That made the choice kind of easy. I enjoyed football and I wanted to make my mark in something that I was really good at. I’m a decent basketball player but I’m a pretty good football player.

Do you still play basketball at any type of competitive level, or is it all pick up nowadays?
Nowadays it’s more pick up. But I tried out for the Miami Heat for a summer. I made the team, traveled with them on their summer professional league, and actually did pretty well. Their coach Pat Van Gundy told me, “Look, you can play professional basketball if you wanted to. You probably wouldn’t get that much time, but if you put your mind to it, you can play professional basketball. And I know I can. I proved what I had to. I’ve played in the Summer Pro League. I played with guys like Penny Hardaway, Magic Johnson, Barron Davis.

Are there any other guys in the NFL that can hoop on your level?
I bet there’s a couple. I think Randy Moss is a good player—I heard, I know Terrell Owens is a good player. Antonio Gates, from what I’ve heard, is a really good basketball player.

So you haven’t played with any of them?
I’ve played with TO before. I’ve played with Donovan McNabb too—and he wasn’t that good. TO was pretty good. I haven’t seen any of the other guys play, but I heard they’re pretty good.

What about your 360-degree goalpost slam dunk? When are we going to see you bust that?
I don’t know, but the more I’m waiting the more it’s getting farther and farther. I remember a game last season, I scored two touchdowns, but both times I went for the dunk I came up a little short. I had to convert it to a finger roll.

As someone who’s played both sports at such a high level tell us who’s in better shape, basketball or football players?
Without a doubt it’s basketball. There is no comparison. When I played basketball in college I’d get done with the football season and it would take me literally about a month to get into solid basketball shape. It’s tough flying up and down the court especially if you’re on one of those teams that likes the fast breaks. Football is four seconds of burst. That’s it. There’s no question. Just look at all the fat people there are on offensive line. They’re out of shape. They can barely go 30 plays a game.

How about your future? What direction do you see yourself heading after football?
I want to do something that I love. There are so many opportunities out there for me. I’m looking at the broadcasting. I had a show out here in Kansas City for five years that I did. I took over from Marcus Allen when he left.

There’s also maybe building a business. I’m already into business. I have a restaurant down in Southern California that I’m part owner of called Sutra, it’s one of the hottest places in Orange County. I own Baja Fresh’s out in Kansas City too. So there are a lot of business opportunities. Then I’ve also thought about coaching high school football and just relaxing—settling down and having some more kids.

Being a huge football player, I don’t think there are too many people who’d want to mess with you, but you’ve talked about some experiences you had been bullied as a kid. Tell us about that and if that affected you.
I got bullied by older kids, two of them actually. They would come down every day after school to beat me up, and I used to run from them all the time—literally for almost the whole school year. So my eighth grade year, I didn’t go to any school dances. I didn’t hang out after class. I didn’t go out at all. I was pretty much a latchkey kid, watching television all the time. As soon as the bell rang, I was on the way home. So I pretty much learned what it was like to be the wimp in school. Everyone would make fun of me at school because I would keep running from these kids and got bullied.

At my eighth grade graduation my mom, my brother and the rest of my family came out. After the graduation they were looking around for me to congratulate me. They were like, Where the hell is Tony?
I went and hid behind a wall, because one of the bullies had shown up there. I was so scared of this kid that I wouldn’t even go see my family after I graduated. My family came and found me. I was there sitting behind a wall when they all walked up. They just all looked at me at the same time and said, “What are you doing here?” I remember the look on my mom and my brother’s face. My brother was just like, What the hell are you doing? And my mom didn’t even say anything. She just looked at me and gave me this disappointed look, like, How could you? You’re that scared of them?

So this was life changing. People talk about your life boils down to a couple of key moments, and that was probably my first key moment in life. From that point on I was like, I’m never running from anything ever again. If I’m going to get my ass kicked, I’ll get my ass kicked. Whatever it is, I’m just going to go ahead and face it. I’m never backing down from anything, no matter what.

What happened to you and that guy after that turning point? Were there any further confrontations?
After that I moved out of the district, so I didn’t go to the high school where he was. But I did see the guy a couple of years later during my junior year. By this point I’m towering over him. I just looked down at him and smiled.

Then there was the other guy. I saw him my senior year in high school. He was working at a gas station. I come up and say, “Hey man, do you remember me?” He tried to pretend like he didn’t remember me. He had a scared look on his face. I looked at him and I was like, “Man I’m not going to do anything.” I pretty much blew it off. I’m not going to do anything now. I wouldn’t seek any type of vengeance, and I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody out there that’s had a similar situation. You learn from these experiences, and it made me who I am today. I’m thankful that it happened because, who knows, I might have still been that big oafie kid on the football field and never learned to be tough mentally.

You mean you weren’t always the star on the football team?
Believe it or not, I was always the worst kid on the football team. Talk about fighting for playing time. When you play Pop Warner Football, you pay so you’re supposed to get at least six plays a game. I remember I wouldn’t even get six plays. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it—obviously I can do it—it was just a matter of attitude. I didn’t want to hurt anybody. I think I was just not aggressive. I didn’t have the football mentality. But after what happened to me in the eighth grade, from that moment on, I developed it and said I’m going to go out there and make this thing happen.

I heard that you went to Mexico one summer to learn Spanish? Most people might take a few classes or hire a tutor, but you made the decision to actually go down and live in Mexico. How did that come about?
It was recommended to me. I always wanted to learn Spanish. Coming from Southern California, and also because people in my family speak Portuguese and some of them also speak Spanish. Because my grandfather grew up in Argentina. He moved there when he was 12 years old, so he spoke Spanish probably almost more that Portuguese. So I used to hear it all the time. It was just something important to me. Because of my Latin name, everywhere I go people would always speak to me in Spanish. And I’d be able to say the basics, “¿Hola, Como estas?”—all that normal stuff. But I wanted to learn more about it and get into the culture, because it’s part of me. And I also saw it as an outlet to give back to the community. Being a football athlete…there really aren’t many football players that are Latino. There are becoming more of them, but I knew with my name I would be able to make an impact in my community. And I’m still not there yet, but as soon as I become fluent, I want to go out there and start doing assemblies in Spanish for the kids that don’t speak too much English.

What was it like being a football star in this small Mexican town?
After the first week I was saying to myself, maybe I made a mistake. When I went down there I didn’t speak any Spanish. I knew how to say hello and ask how much stuff was, but I couldn’t do anything beyond that. I moved in with a family. I didn’t go out and get a hotel. And they didn’t speak any English whatsoever, so most of the time, especially during the first week, I would just be sitting there at the table, not being able to speak any English. It makes you feel vulnerable, and it taught me a lot about myself, which is kind of the reason I wanted to go down there: to learn, to see how I would react to the situation, being in an uncomfortable environment. That’s when your character is formed, and I’m kind of like that. I like to put myself in situations to see if it can make me a better person.

How did people react to you?
It was strange. I was in San Miguel de Allende. It’s a beautiful town, kind of a touristy place. A lot of people that knew football would say hello to me, but the locals didn’t know who I was. But ESPN came down and did a story on me, by the end of the trip everywhere I’d go people would yell, “Tony!” But at first it was real cool being incognito.

What was funny, I was at the park down there and I saw a little kid with my jersey on. His dad was there and I didn’t really speak too much Spanish. I just pointed to his jersey and was trying to say, hey that’s me. He just started smiling. I don’t know if he understood me or not, but it was funny.

People must reacted to you just because of your size.
Yeah, they called me Shaquille down there. ‘Cause I’d play basketball with them. They’ve got the craziest rules down there. There is no traveling, and they only play to three points. So the first game we get out there—you know I’m just warming up and thinking, okay we’re playing to seven or something. They beat us the first three games. They were quick little suckers. So then after that I started dunking. I don’t think they had too many people dunking out there. All of a sudden every time I’d go out there, by the end of the day, we’d have like a crowd. Everyone would come out to watch me play. I was like a local celebrity out there. Everyone would come out and say hello and take pictures with me. It was cool.

That’s great. You didn’t break their basketball rims did you?
One time someone threw the ball and I caught the ball off the rim and dunked it on them, like three of those guys. But that was probably the worst thing I could have done. Ever since that point, anytime I touched to ball there were like two or three guys on me, fouling the shit out of me.

What was it like to live with a family?
The food was great. The lady cooked for me three times a day. I got to know her and her family. She had a little boy named Cristian who was nine years old. A lot of the adults don’t want to talk and I was trying to learn the language. So the little boy would be so patient with me and teach me Spanish. He was really cool. He was like my boy down there.

How about the señoritas?

You know in San Miguel they’re not that good looking. I did go on a date with one of them. Believe it or not, she wrote me a letter the next day. I was in class and she came up to me to give me a letter. She was like, “I need to talk to you.” I’m like, “What’s up?” And she said, “I think I’m in love with you.” I’m like, “What?” We went out on one date. We didn’t do anything. I didn’t take her back to the room or anything like that. I kissed her goodnight. That was it. But now she was telling me that she was in love with me. And she was serious about it too.

I also went to Guadalajara later for an NFL thing. There were some beautiful women down there. I love Latin women. They are my favorite.

So who are your top three Latinas?
You’ve got to go with Jennifer Lopez. No matter how played it is, she is still beautiful. I like Rosario Dawson. There are so many models that I’ve seen that are not famous. I like tall girls. Sofia Vergara she’s beautiful too.

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