Nick Canepa: Saluting Antonio Gates, Hall of Famer and one of San Diego’s best

Except on some unfortunate occasions, Antonio Gates’ body, a remarkable piece of evolutionary athletic engineering that did things no football player before his could do — ran.

His mouth did not.

And yet he’s responsible for one of my favorite quotes from any athlete I’ve covered — in his case, had the privilege to cover. Maybe it’s because of who he was, not a comic, despite the ever-present smile on his face — and how he carried himself, all too often his own horn remaining in its holster, an instrument he refused to blow.

He was a great — truly great — football player, who much like Bill Walton, had his feet betray him in the arena and yet always managed to stand tall. A good, humble, friendly and very smart man.

On Saturday, Gates will become The NFL Team That Used To Be Here’s second tight end to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On his best days, Gates was way beyond brilliant, an impossible player.

It’s well-documented. Gates didn’t play football at Kent State. He was a second-team All-American basketball player — got Kent to the Elite Eight — but at 6-foot-5, he was a tweener not made for the NBA.

So Gates decided to try the NFL, where he became a unique species — a basketball player making basketball moves and using his basketball body to get open. There were times he simply could not be covered. The other great NFL tight end at the time who also played college basketball — Tony Gonzalez, a good player at Cal — fueled my quote.

Gates was about to play the Chiefs and Gonzalez, and he was asked about the difference between his game of basketball and Tony’s.

Antonio: “Gonzalez played basketball. They game-planned for me.”

NFL defensive coordinators game-planned, and had more than a little trouble handling the Philip Rivers-Gates combination, which became the most prolific in NFL history.

What Gates accomplished was all about his drive. He was undrafted, a rookie free agent, who was fortunate. He chose the right camp, a place where he was allowed to sharpen his skills and grow. That may not have happened elsewhere. And there were quarterbacks Drew Brees and Rivers to provide fuel for that engine.

In Gates’ first year, 2003, he caught 24 passes for 389 yards and two touchdowns. His second season: 81 catches, 964 yards, 13 touchdowns. Pro Bowl. First team All-Pro, his first of three in a three-year run.

Other teams didn’t “miss” on Antonio. He didn’t play football in college. There was no film.

There have been many NFL GMs and coaches who have beaten their own chests over the Horatio Alger players, how they “discovered” talent. Hall of Famers Tom Brady and Terrell Davis went in the sixth round. Brilliant choices by Bill Belichick and Mike Shanahan, no?

Players taken sixth round are typically camp fodder, maybe special teams players. Don’t you think they might have been drafted higher if the wise guys thought them worthy and might lose them if they waited?

A.J. Smith, San Diego’s general manager at the time, relied on a scout and signed off on Gates, who A.J. obviously never had seen — unless he was a fan of Kent State Golden Flashes basketball.

“I didn’t do anything,” Smith said. “Antonio fell out of the sky into my lap.”

“I think what made him a little different, “ Rivers said, “was his combination of size and speed.”

It wasn’t as though football was foreign to Antonio. He played both sports at Detroit Central High School and was recruited by Nick Saban at Michigan State. But Saban apparently wanted Gates to concentrate only on football, so Antonio skedaddled, eventually winding up at Kent State after brief tours at Eastern Michigan and College of the Sequoias in Visalia.

Gates salvaged that 2003 recruiting class, Smith’s first. Marty Schottenheimer ruled the roost for a brief period after GM John Butler’s death. Smith, a newcomer, hadn’t built up enough votes to overrule Marty and use the first-round pick on Troy Polamalu, who, deemed too small by Schottenheimer, would become a Hall of Fame safety with Pittsburgh. A.J. down to No. 30, when he took cornerback Sammy Davis, who couldn’t sing, dance, play 100 instruments, or entertain.

In any event, how do we rank the great tight ends of history? I have a top four: John Mackey,  Kellen Winslow, Rob Gronkowski — and Gates.

Mackey was remarkably gifted, before his time, probably the best runner among all of them.

Winslow was a physical and mental monster who broke ground when Ernie Zampese and Don Coryell split him out wide.

Gronkowski did everything brilliantly, the best all-around.

Gates scored 116 touchdowns, the most ever by a tight end.

By comparison, Travis Kelce has 80 career TDs, which is outstanding, yet 36 short. I’m a big touchdown guy. Scoring wins. Remember, during a whole lot of his career, Gates had a teammate named LaDainian Tomlinson, who scored 162 TDs, third all-time. And yet only 13 players have scored more than Gates.

The problem I have today is that Antonio should have been inducted last year, his first on the Hall of Fame ballot.

The media gets blamed for a lot of things. This is one of them. And it should be. Big-talking jewelers passing off the Hope Diamond as cubic zirconia.