Bell: Antonio Gates has something to prove after suspension

Jarrett Bell | USA TODAY Sports

SAN DIEGO – Antonio Gates didn’t come off as a man seeking sympathy when pondering the impact of the first suspension of his otherwise illustrious NFL career.

Yet the well-decorated San Diego Chargers tight end seemed seriously concerned about something.

Gates, who had a late-career resurgence in 2014, will miss the first four games for violating the NFL’s policy on using performance-enhancing drugs. He blamed the failed drug test on a tainted supplement.

“This is another chip on my shoulder,” Gates told USA TODAY Sports during a mid-day break at training camp recently. “Hopefully, when I get back, they’ll welcome me with open arms.

“You know how tough this league is.”

Maybe they will welcome back Philip Rivers’ most trusted target in the red zone?

Gates, 35, is getting long in the tooth by NFL standards, heading into his 13th season. But given his good health and continued production, he strikes me as a man being a bit modest to think that he won’t ultimately be a key cog in whatever plans the Chargers have to unseat the Denver Broncos in the AFC West and win their first division crown since 2009.

“I’ve seen some of the best get up out of here,” Gates said. “I’m never comfortable. Once you get to that point, you misinterpret what his league is about. I’ve seen LT (LaDainian Tomlinson) leave. Seen (Junior) Seau leave. Anybody, at any given time, can be expendable.”

Given the uncertainty of the franchise’s future in San Diego, with a stadium plan for Greater Los Angeles pending, Gates stood on the sideline during the preseason opener at Qualcomm Stadium this month and suggested to Rivers that if this winds up as their last stand in the stadium they need to make it a season to remember.

So he’s still thinking big on one level.

Yet in processing the suspension, Gates has found himself in the unusual position of defending his integrity. Never mind the extensive track record – including eight Pro Bowl selections and 99 TDs, more than any player in the NFL over the past 12 years – that suggests he’s Canton-bound.

With a fresh blemish, some people – most notably, Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe – may wonder whether he’s a legitimate cheater.

“I know who I am,” said Gates, who owns franchise records for career catches, receiving yards and receiving TDs. “People who do things in a negative fashion know what it looks like. A person that’s doing stuff to enhance his play knows what it looks like.

“That’s what’s bothered me the most. Off my body of work, from college, high school, middle school, it would be hard-pressed to think that for all of the things I’ve done – I’ve taken probably a million tests and showed up positive for one, and 99.999% of the time when you test me, nothing shows up.”

Gates said that he’s been subject to random testing for six years after responding late to requests for testing earlier in his career, but that until this year had never tested positive for anything. He’s puzzled because he passed tests in the months before and after failing a test in April, and that he’s used the same supplement. While not identifying the specific ingredient he was flagged for, he said that it is associated with an increased testosterone level.

“I don’t know how it got in there,” he said.

He wonders if it was related to a kidney-cleansing product he took. Or maybe pain medication he used during the offseason. Otherwise, he says, he’s had no issues with the holistic approach he’s taken for several years with his body maintenance. He says that he realizes that ultimately, as the NFL policy warns, players are responsible for what goes into their bodies.

“I can’t explain it, so I can’t win the battle,” he said. “It’s black and white. But you know what? I learned from it. I go back and tell these guys, ‘Be careful of the supplements you take.’ “

Sharpe, for one, doesn’t buy Gates’ version.

“You know how much money and effort guys expend now on their bodies? They have personal trainers, chefs, nutritionists, therapists,” Sharpe told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. “They are always aware of what they are doing with their bodies, in this day and age.

“Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, you could have said you were not aware. But not anymore.”

Sharpe recalled how he handled supplements and other products during his career with the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens. He ran them past his trainers, and if there was any hesitation or doubt, he refused to use it.

In Gates’ case, he said he never had the product in question tested, essentially because he didn’t have any issues with the legitimacy of it. Furthermore, he didn’t call the hotline that the NFL has established for players to check on products.

When the new drug policy was instituted last year, the joint certification program between the NFL and NFL Players Association for supplements was abandoned. Now, both the league and union warn players that supplements are not regulated like prescription drugs, so there are inherent risks.

Perhaps this is the lesson that Gates learned the hard way.

“Now I’m more aware of it,” he said. “If something happens to you, you become more aware. Anytime I pour a (nutritional) drink now, it’s like, ‘What’s in there?’ Things I’ve been drinking for years.

“You just don’t know everything that’s on the list (of banned substances). If you knowingly took something on the list, then you’re wrong.”

Turns out that in the NFL’s eyes, Gates is wrong whether he knew it or not. It seems odd that a player who is known to be so meticulous about his diet and training regimen would not go to the greatest lengths possible to ensure that his supplements were good.

Then again, it’s plausible that his product was tainted and Gates didn’t have a clue.

Believe him?

“Not by any means do I look at him differently,” Rivers told USA TODAY Sports. “Our friendship, the trust and our relationship remains the same. Obviously, you’re disappointed that you’re going to miss him for four games. It’s an effect. But really, more than that, you hate it for him. Some of the things that came out, like, ‘Oh, that’s why he’s doing it.’ No, that’s not him.”

Last season, Gates responded to questions about whether he was over the hill with 12 TDs, which tied the NFL high for tight ends and were his most since 2010. Now there’s something else to drive him.

“Everybody is always going to say something,” he said. “But as you get older, you learn to love yourself based on knowing yourself.”

Sharpe insists that despite his criticism of Gates, he respects the journey and career that the Chargers star has produced since entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent who played basketball – and not football – at Kent State.

“That will be on his resume,” Sharpe said. “But a four-game suspension is on his resume, too.”

Gates won’t argue that.

“It’s a natural human trait for people to make assumptions about certain things,” said Gates, a Detroit native who was a two-sport start at Central High. “I think when you have a history, a reputation, that sticks with you longer than one incident. And I’m not just talking about my reputation in the NFL.”

A reputation that now includes one major mistake.

Follow Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.