Antonio Gates is a professional American Football player who has represented the Los Angeles Chargers in the National Football League. Not only is Gates hugely popular, but he also has many records to his name including being selected 8 times into the Pro Bowl and he is a five time All-Pro.

Personal Life

Antonio Gates was born on June 18,1980 as Antonio Ethan Gates Jr. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. Gates was a part of Kent State University for his Junior and Senior years. Prior to which he dabbled between Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University. It was when Gates was part of Kent State University that he played basketball and represented his college.

Though, Gates wanted to be a part of Michigan State University and wanted to play football and basketball under the then coaches Nick Saban and Tom Izzo respectively. However, Saban’s insistence of focussing only on Football led to Gates pursuing basketball as his primary sport and even a transfer to Eastern Michigan University. Following a brief stint there he moved on to a junior college named the College of the Sequoias, in California. The main reason for the transfer was Gates’ will to focus on academics. Later on, Gates moved to Kent State University in the northeastern part of the state of Ohio upon being chosen by Stan Heath.

Gates’ listed statistics state his height to be 6ft 4inches, i.e approximately 1.93m and his weight is around 255 pounds, which translates to 116 kg approximately.

Gates’ biography states he is married to model Sasha Dindayal. The duo dated for a long time before getting married on July 9,2011. Gates has a daughter named Ananda Gates, who was born to him from a previous relationship. She currently resides in Atlanta with her mother while Gates and his family live in Encino, California.

Career

Gates was classified by most of the NBA scouts to be a “tweener”, a term which is popularly used in Basketball to describe a player who is good at more than one position, however, he isn’t particularly great at either position. Due to this, Gates decided to meet with scouts of the National Football League (NFL) and arranged tryouts. More than 19 teams were interested in landing Gates a tryout. This was considered to be greatly promising as Gates had never been part of the football team throughout college.

Gates’ first tryout was with the San Diego Chargers who were impressed with him at once and immediately signed a contract with him fearing any delay would be a waste of potential and it was financially profitable for the Chargers as well, as Gates was an undrafted free agent at the time.

Over the years, Gates has represented only the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers, at the tight end position, since the year 2003 and he has had an impeccable record with them. Gates has won the Pro-Bowl 8 times, he is also a three timer First Team All-Pro and Two timer Second Team All-Pro. He was also featured in the San Diego Chargers 50th Anniversary Team.