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SAN DIEGO -- Antonio Gates recalls Nick Saban telling him hed one day be an NFL first-round draft pick and that he could play both football and his beloved basketball at Michigan State.Neither happened.Yet heres Gates, the former basketball star from Kent State, needing three touchdown catches to break Tony Gonzalezs NFL record of 111 for a tight end.Being 6-foot-4 and weighing 250 pounds, Gates knows he made the right choice in going to the NFL rather than trying to pursue an NBA career.Still, for every pass hes caught from Drew Brees, Doug Flutie, Philip Rivers and even LaDainian Tomlinson, Gates always has basketball in the back of his mind.Thats the part thats kind of like the chip on my shoulder when I play, Gates said. In my mind, Id be thinking, `I wish I would have given it a chance, to see what would have happened. But its hard to see it because of the success over time playing football. Its kind of hard to say now.But I think thats what drives me still to this day is because I know I didnt give my heart a chance to do what I wanted to do. So Im like, `OK, well, somebodys going to pay for it. If Ive got to play 15, 18 years, to get all the records, thats what drives you, when people cant see you for what you were.Gates, 36, joined the Chargers as a rookie free agent in 2003, a year after leading Kent State to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. He caught his first touchdown pass on Nov. 9, 2003.It was against Minnesota. From Doug Flutie, Gates said. Drew Brees was here and I guess he kind of didnt get off to a good start and Flutie got in the game and I scored a touchdown.Brees regained his starting job but left after 2005, and Rivers became the starter.Rivers and Gates have connected on 82 touchdown passes, the most between a quarterback and tight end. Gates 109 TD catches rank him seventh all-time.Rivers first start was opening night in 2006 at Oakland. In the fourth quarter, he hit Gates on a 4-yard corner route. Rivers threw only 11 passes that night, two to Gates.I was fired up, obviously, to throw a touchdown in my first start, Rivers said. I remember going up to him and saying, `Hey, thats the first of many. And he was kind of like, `Get out of here. I havent got a ball all day. I dont want to hear that.Now you look back and however many its been between he and I, and hes right there at 109. It is special. I want it for him more than anything, and I think he wants it as well. Certainly when given the opportunity Im going to try my hardest to get him into the end zone three more times, at least.When Gates joined the Chargers he hadnt played a down of football since his senior season at Detroits Central High. Saban recruited Gates to Michigan State. Gates left after a year because Saban wouldnt let him play basketball.We didnt see eye to eye. I felt he sat in front of my momma and my father and said I could do both, said Gates, who had grown up idolizing Michigans Fab Five. I told him, `I came here to do both. He said, `No, football. `After playing at two junior colleges, Gates ended up starring in hoops at Kent State. Along the way he was noticing that people he knew were getting drafted high by NFL teams.Among them was Dwight Smith -- my homeboy from high school -- who went to Akron and was a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in 2001. Smith had two interceptions of Oaklands Rich Gannon, the league MVP, in the Bucs Super Bowl win at San Diegos Qualcomm Stadium in January 2003.Thats how it started, Gates said.He mentioned former Michigan State players T.J. Duckett, Charles Rogers, Julius Peterson, Dimitrius Underwood and Plaxico Burress. All first-rounders.Wait a minute, something aint adding up, Gates said. This is my circle and everybodys getting drafted.So now Nick Saban, what he had told me, started to make sense at that point, Gates said. Because he told me I was a first-rounder. He swore up and down Id go first round if I just played football. I was like, `Uh, I dont want to hear that. You just want me out there. I dont want to hear that, Nick Saban. You just dont want me on the basketball court.But I loved basketball. That was my heart. Its like going to the prom, man. Youve got two girls and you love one and she dont show you no attention and you have to go out of your way. Youre trying to get her attention. And then heres a girl whos just wanting to go to prom with you: `Love you, like your height. You smell good, ` Gates said with a laugh. Thats how football was. Everything was great. `You tall, you fast. You big. And basketball was like, `Uh, can you do it at this level? It was always the ifs ands and buts when it came to basketball. Golly, no matter what I do, I average 20 points a game and they were like, `Do it against Kentucky. I had 27 on that. I had 33 on Boston College. `But can you do it consistently on this level?Football was like, nothing I did was bad. Ultimately it wears on you. It wears on your confidence.Gates had a daughter at the time and made what he felt was the safest choice: the NFL. All these years later, hes certainly erased the doubters.I think its great. Im not surprised, either, said Gonzalez, who plans to congratulate Gates via Twitter when he breaks the touchdown mark.The two were division rivals for six seasons when Gonzalez was with the Kansas City Chiefs.He pushed me to the limit to be the best tight end I could be, said Gonzalez, a studio analyst for CBS NFL Today.Id like to think I did the same. There was always that competition of who could outperform who in the game.Gonzalez also played college hoops, at California, and like Gates picked the NFL over a possible NBA career.I love that he made the right decision, Gonzalez said. With the legacy hes set, hes right there with the other guy from that franchise, Kellen Winslow, two of best to ever put on cleats and play the tight end position.---Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/berniewilson---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Vapormax 97 Italia . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Vapormax 97 Scontate . 24 Baylor in a Big 12 clash between teams trending in opposite directions. Andrew Wiggins made 10-of-12 from the foul line and scored 17 for Kansas (14-4, 5-0 Big 12), which capped a stretch of four straight games against ranked opponents unscathed. http://www.scarpevapormaxscontate.it/vapormax-plus-italia.html . - Goaltender Philippe Desrosiers of the Rimouski Oceanic has broken a shutout record that was only three months old in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Vapormax Flyknit Offerte . Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek defeated Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on the indoor hard-court at Belgrade Arena. The victory improved the Czech pairs impressive cup doubles record to 14-1. Vapormax Plus Scontate . -- Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a $630,000, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration.Fernando Alonso does not believe it should come as a surprise that consistent Nico Rosberg is on the brink of beating Lewis Hamilton to F1s world title. For the first time in their four seasons as Mercedes team-mates, Rosberg is on course to beat Hamilton over the course of a full campaign with victory for the German in this Sundays Brazilian GP enough for him to become world champion for the first time.And McLarens Alonso, a double title winner in 2005 and 2006, believes the German has proved himself to be a worthy title contender in his own right. I dont think that anyone thought that the championship was easy for Lewis this year. He didnt even think that way when it started, said Alonso at Interlagos.We know Nico is very consistent and is very strong in some circumstances. Here in Brazil he was winning for the last two years, even if Hamilton was dominating other circuits. So we know that Nico is a very strong driver - and very consistent as well.He normally finishes all the races, [with] many, many podiums, so he will always be a title contender and this year he is even ahead of Hamilton. So lets see what the outcome is. Last season aside, when Hamilton won 10 of the opening 16 races to clinch his second consecutive title with three races to spare, Alonso says the battle at Mercedes has invariably been close.They were quite equal two years ago when the championship was decided in the last race in Abu Dhabi. So they were up and down that year, said the Spaniard.Last year Lewis was much quicker and had the championship [won] with good margin and I think this year Nico was very strong and was more consistent.He had less reliability issues also, Nico, so that was probably a little bit of an advantage. But apart from last yeear, they were always both quite competitive.dddddddddddd.Why Rosberg would be a deserved champ if he wins the titleThe fact Hamiltons title defence has been compromised by several engine failures, notably in Malaysia last month when on course for a comfortable victory, has led some to question whether Rosberg would be a fully-deserving world champion.Jenson Button, Alonsos McLaren team-mate and a former title winner himself, says circumstances have fallen more for Rosberg this year but it still would not dilute the achievement and if you win a world championship youre a worthy champion. However, Button reckons the possibility of a rain-hit weekend in Brazil would mean Rosberg will have to work harder to close it out this weekend.I think this weekend is going to be an interesting one, said Button. If its dry its very easy for him to clinch the title here, but if its wet it really does mix things up.It puts a lot of pressure on both of them if its wet because Lewis knows hes very strong in the wet and he can get a big points haul here. And Nico knows hes got more to lose if its wet.So its tricky in the wet because everythings to play for and one tiny mistake can end in disaster. I hope its wet and its good for Formula 1 if theres a good fight in the wet. Im sure Nico wants it to be dry, but everybody else who watches F1 and is in F1 wants it to be wet. Can Nico Rosberg clinch the title at Interlagos? Watch the Brazilian GP live on Sky Sports F1 on Sunday, the race begins at 4pm; Watch the whole race weekend with a NOW TV week pass - £10.99, no contract Also See: Why Rosberg would be a deserved champ Whens the Brazilian GP on Sky F1? ' ' '