The Atlanta Falcons Week 17 showdown against NFC South rival Carolina is not your average season-finale. If all goes according to plan, it will be the 277th and final game in the illustrious career of Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez.
GLORY ROAD …
It is a career that began on Aug. 31, 1997, four months after the Kansas City Chiefs selected Gonzalez with the 13th pick of that year’s NFL Draft. Before heaping well-deserved praise on Gonzalez, let’s take a moment to reflect on said draft. After all, you need not look any further than that selection process to gauge the improbability of Gonzalez’s NFL longevity. The first five picks were…wait for it…Orlando Pace, Darrell Russell, Shawn Springs, Peter Boulware and Bryant Westbrook. Off the board exactly one spot before Gonzalez was none other than former Falcons running back Warrick Dunn, who retired after the 2008 season. Other notable players joining the NFL at the same time either through the draft or as undrafted free agents were Tiki Barber, Jake Plummer, Jake Delhomme and Priest Holmes.
Yes, all of those guys are actually the same age as Gonzalez. You can’t make this stuff up, folks. A pass-catching force right from the start, Gonzalez saw his numbers steadily improve throughout his first four seasons as a professional. He amassed 368 receiving yards as a rookie, 621 yards in his second year, 849 yards in 1999 and 1,203 yards in 2000. After finding the endzone twice in each of his first two campaigns, Gonzalez hauled in 11 touchdowns in his third season and nine in his fourth. He set career-highs in receptions (102) and yards (1,258) in 2004 and he eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in four of 12 seasons in Kansas City.
As a Chief, he had 916 receptions for 10,940 yards and 76 touchdowns. Playoffs included, he played in a ridiculous 193 of 195 games. Just about the only thing Gonzalez failedto do in Kansas City was win. The Chiefs compiled five winning seasons in those 12 years and did not capture a single postseason victory in three attempts. Twice they went 13-3 only to lose divisional-round games to the Broncos in 1997 and to the Colts in 2003. Kansas City snagged a wild card in 2006 but got clobbered by the Colts in Round 1. As Gonzalez predicted himself, losing was a problem easily solved by his 2009 arrival in Atlanta.
“It’s somewhat bittersweet,” he said after being dealt from the Chiefs in April of 2009. “I love Kansas City. The city means a lot to me. It will be sad to leave a city I love. But I’m looking forward to making a Super Bowl run in Atlanta every year for the next three or four years.”
FALCONS YEARS …
Although Gonzalez never took part in the Super Bowl, he certainly made a run at it. The Falcons played their way to winning records in all of Gonzalez’s first four seasons, advancing to the playoffs three times and twice winning the NFC South with 13-3 marks (in 2010 and 2012). Gonzalez’s postseason record dipped to 0-5 following early ousters in 2010 and 2011, but he finally got over the hump last season. Atlanta won a 30-28 thriller over Seattle before succumbing to San Francisco 28-24 in the NFC Championship. Fortunes have changed for the team in 2013 as it approaches the finish line of its first losing season since 2007, before the Mike Smith-Matt Ryan era even started.
If anything or anyone has remained a constant, however, it is Gonzalez. Through Week 13, he was second on the team behind Harry Douglas in catches (62) and receiving yards (653) while leading the Falcons in touchdowns (five). In a Sept. 29 loss to New England in which Atlanta almost mounted a miraculous fourth-quarter come-back, Gonzalez turned 12 receptions into 149 yards and two touchdowns. His incredible streak of games played has continued (12 for 12 this year as of the end of November and 80 for 80—playoffs included—in his career as a Falcon) despite a nagging toe injury and little to play for in terms of playoff potential since very early in the season. Coach-es asked a hobbled Gonzalez to leave the game during the third quarter of Atlanta’s Nov. 17 blowout loss at Tampa Bay, but the 17-year veteran refused.
“The game was kind of over, but it’s like ‘Nah, I’m going to go out there,’” Gonzalez explained. “I’ve only got six games left now. I’m going to tell those guys, like I tell them all the time, ‘Every play, play like it’s your last play.”
“No matter what it is, no matter what the circumstances are, Tony Gonzalez is a football player,” White commented after losing to the Tampa Bay on Nov. 17. “He’s willing to go out there with his soldiers no matter what the situation or whatever happens.”
In this injury-plagued year, the Falcons have struggled. Once 1-4 then 2-9 through 11 games, Gonzalez never had any regrets returning for a fifth and final season in Atlanta.
“This is the team I came back for,” Gonzalez said prior to this season’s trade deadline, insisting that if it was up to him he would be going nowhere. “These are the guys I came back to play with. I’m enjoying myself win, lose or draw. Obviously, I would rather win. It makes it a lot more fun. But there’s no way I would even think about jumping ship, because I love playing for this team and I love playing for this city.”
Even though their 2013 goals went unaccomplished, Ryan also loved Gonzalez’s decision to return for one more season—and stay for the duration—instead of retiring after the 2012 campaign.
“It’s always huge for us, first and foremost, when you add a great player to your team,” the sixth-year quarterback assured, referring to Gonzalez’s comeback. “It makes you better. But beyond that, his personality in the locker room, his leadership for young guys to see what it takes to be one of the best, I think that’s huge for us…. I’m happy he’s here. And I’ve been happy he’s been here for five years. He’s one of my favorite teammates, all-time favorite guys to be around.”
Falcons fans, it’s time to rise up and say goodbye to one of the NFL’s all-time great players and great guys. We won’t see him in a Falcons uniform again, but we’ll see him around. And we’ll see him in the Hall of Fame.
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