Antonio Gates was a better tight end than Shannon Sharpe, a former AFC West rival. As good as Sharpe was, and the Pro Football of Fame inducted him in 2011, Gates was simply unguardable back in the day when he could fake out cornerbacks yet also run fast like a receiver, as Ladarius Green does now.

As a talker, Gates has game, too, but he’s facing an uphill fight here, now, in an evolving thing with Sharpe, who has made the transition from outspoken jock to provocative radio jock.

Sharpe is a motormouth deluxe who these days gets paid to talk, and he is again going after Gates, who took a swipe at him this week in response to the verbal punch Sharpe threw in July, after Gates was suspended four games for a positive PED test.

Reviewing, Sharpe had said Gates “cheated himself and he cheated the game” with a positive drug test that “makes you question everything someone has ever accomplished.”


When Gates returned Wednesday from his four-game suspension, he shed light on his relationship with Sharpe, whose final season, in 2003 with the Broncos, came when Gates was a rookie.

“We do know each other, and it was always competitive in terms of who was the better tight end. I do know that,” Gates said. “And we joked about it. We laughed about it. So, I guess if he can find a way to tarnish some things, I’m quite sure he probably would.”

Sharpe had more to say Friday morning. Boy, did he ever. He’s probably still talking on SiriusXM NFL Radio. Here are a few excerpts:

If Antonio Gates believes in his heart of hearts that I care whether or not he breaks the records that I once had, that Tony [Gonzalez] now has, [or] he ends his career with more catches, more yards, more touchdowns, more rings, if he honestly believes that, I feel bad for him. You see, I didn’t tarnish his name. I didn’t put the stain on his resume. He did that.


Another comment from Sharpe:

Antonio Gates, your anger, your frustration is pointed in the wrong direction. When you walk by the mirror, take a peek to your right or your left. That’s the guy you should be upset with, not me. We played the same position. We played it at a very high level. But you tried to take a shortcut somewhere along the way and I never did. And that’s not my fault, that’s yours.

Sharpe was just getting warmed up. He talked for nine minutes, in the above link.

Along the way, he uttered these six important words in passng: “Maybe it was the first time.”

Maybe it was the first time.

As the word “maybe” denotes, Sharpe does not know what Gates did or didn’t put into his body for all those years. Sharpe does not have the dope on the dope. But that has not stopped him from suggesting and implying, as he did at length in the nine-minute commentary, that Gates used banned substances at other points of his career. That he was a cheat.


Sharpe claimed this will be the end of it.

“After today I’m not going to address Antonio Gates,” he said.

Then he went on at length, again.

So when Gates chatted on the Chargers’ flagship radio station (1360 AM) Friday, he was back in the business of responding to Sharpe. Here’s one:


…when I hear people make comments, you know, it seems to me it comes from somewhat of a jealousy or insecurity in themselves more so than, you know, knowing the true person. A lot of people are not around me, they haven’t been in San Diego, they don’t know what it is that we stand for as a Chargers family, as a person, what I stand for. They really have no history on who I am as a person....I’ve been a captain on just about every team I’ve been on. You know you can go all the way back to my middle school, high school, my collegiate career…coaches can probably say the same thing. I think I felt more disappointed that I let my team down than what the outsiders had to say. It was one of those things where you have to get over it and move on.