ANTONIO GATES HAS officially announced his retirement from the NFL.
The tight end compiled an all-time great CV in 16 seasons with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers franchise he joined as an undrafted free agent in 2003 following a workout.
A former basketball player who never played college football, Gates racked up 11,841 yards, with his 116 touchdowns the most by a tight end in NFL history.
Gates, who did not play in the 2019 season, was a three-time All-Pro and was named to the Pro Bowl eight times in a career that will likely see him inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“After 16 seasons in the NFL, 16 seasons as a Charger, eight Pro Bowl appearances and many records broken, I find it hard to officially put this statement out and retire from the game of football,” a statement from Gates read.
“I never dreamed that I would play this game of football so long or how fortunate I would be to play it with just one organisation. I want to thank the Chargers organisation, Dean Spanos and the Spanos family, and the National Football League for the opportunity to live out a dream and play the game I love.
“And to the fans in San Diego, Los Angeles, across the country and around the world, thank you for your unwavering support all these years. There would be no NFL without you.
“While today I am officially retiring as a Charger, I am grateful that I will still be lending my services to the Chargers organisation – just now in a completely different capacity through the team’s community engagement initiatives and public facing events.
“Thank you to everyone that helped me create memories that will last a lifetime, both on and off the field. Thank you to my agent, Tom Condon, and management team, Denise White and EAG, for helping me navigate this sport over the last 16 years.
“Thank you to my family for your love and support through the years, and a special thank you to my kids – I am hopeful to have left a legacy that you can be proud of, not just as a football player but also as a father.
“I’m looking forward to beginning the next chapter of my career and am grateful for the opportunity to be back around the team and our fans.
“Thank you to everyone who has been part of this remarkable journey with me. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”
- Omni
The simplest rule change would be if a team don’t score a goal they don’t get a point.
0-0 no side gets a point.
1-1 2-2 etc a point each.
That way if you don’t score at least 1 goal you lose.
Excellent idea.
Right lads – we’ll let you score one and then you let us score one and then we’ll start playing properly.
I’d prefer something more like Rugby. Maybe a bonus point for scoring 3.
They should do it so that no game is a draw in a league , a tie after 90 mins goes to penalties
I always thought in a draw the away team gets 2 points, home team one.
A bonus point for scoring three goals would just increase the gap between the big teams and the rest. Imagine the state of La Liga or the Bundesliga if that rule was introduced!
Some fine new product has arrived in Amsterdam, it seems.
Reckon VanB asten knows more about the game than the lot of us put together
He does. It doesn’t make his ideas right.
I think the rule needs changing, not abolishing
It’ll be like school again, playing world cup and it was always the useless lad who hung on the post that won it
Haha beat me to it! Good auld world cup and heads and v’s!
Peter that’s called hatching
NO MOOTCHING LADS
Ridiculous, it would negate high pressing and make teams sit back. Meaning very little in the way of counter attacks and a lot of possession without a lot of action.
He is dead right when he says football needs to change. It’s full of cheats, time wasters, cry babies and the rules are cementing the status quo when they should be trying to change it.
Interesting debate – UEFA have obviously already abolished penalising hand-ball in the box with a penalty judging from the officials completely ignoring 3 of them in last Wednesday night’s Europa Cup Final!!
I taste grapes, sour merseyside grapes
I’m trying my VERY best to have a laugh at it now, Marc, a bit of good-humoured banter, despite the persistent frustration!
Completely ignoring 3!!
You reckon you deserved ’3′ penalties.
Kop yerself on
WOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHH!!!
Was listening to football weekly a while back and jimbo had a great idea to make everything more competitive and interesting. 3 points available per game as usual. If you win you get 2 and if it’s by more than 2 goals you get the bonus. If you lose by just the 1 you get 0 points but if it’s 2 goals or more you are docked a point. It would certainly keep the table interesting and you could forget about counting on games in hand as being necessarily good things.