When he is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, former Chargers tight end Antonio Gates will officially become the first player ever to make the Hall of Fame without playing college football. He still can’t believe it himself.
“It’s like I’m telling a fiction story,” Gates told Chargers.com. “To tell somebody they can come to the NFL and not play college football but then make the team … and then start … and then make the Pro Bowl and be All-Pro your second year … and then be the all-time touchdown leader …It’s not even a story you can make up. The chances? The odds? They’re crazy.”
Gates played basketball at Kent State and thought he was heading for the NBA, but after his college career ended he was surprised to find that NBA scouts didn’t think he had what it took, while NFL scouts thought his raw talent could translate to pro football even without playing in college.
“It was kind of like prom, right? You want to go with this person, but another person wants to go with you,” Gates said. “I wanted to go with basketball, but [football] is who wanted to go with me.”
Gates signed with the Chargers as an undrafted free agent and even he didn’t expect to make the roster as a rookie.
“Make the practice squad,” Gates said. “I looked at the salaries. My boys [from Detroit] were all construction workers or in waste management. If I make the practice squad, I was making more than them. And I was OK with that. Practice squad was my goal,”
Instead, Gates was playing on Sundays, and improving so fast that he had a 100-yard game in Week 15 of his rookie season. By his second season, he was in the Pro Bowl. And now he’s in the Hall of Fame, having followed a path like no other Hall of Famer, ever.
