Tony Gonzalez has signed for two years, but really he’s signed for one year.
A little earlier this afternoon Gonzo’s return to Altanta for one final(?) season became officially official when he signed a two-year contract, according to Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It’s worth a total of $14 million, $7 million of which is guaranteed.
Tony Gonzalez may yet be returning for a 17th NFL season. The tight end has reportedly told his agent, Tom Condon, to talk to the Atlanta Falcons about signing a new deal. According to USA Today, an anonymous source said that a new deal is starting to be worked on. The notion of Gonzalez returning first surfaced from a conversation he had with Warren Moon in which Moon told USA Today that he thought Gonzalez would return in the hopes of winning a Super Bowl.
Tony Gonzalez told me he has officially informed Falcons he is coming back and they are working out a deal now. story on foxsports dot com
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) March 12, 2013
“After discussing it with my family and really, truly struggling with this decision I informed the Falcons I … m.tmi.me/NC5Wt
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) March 12, 2013
Jay Glazer has also now confirmed that Gonzalez has officially informed the team that he will indeed be returning to the Falcons for another season. The two sides are reportedly working on a deal as we speak before the market opens at 4 pm. The Falcons were waiting on Gonzalez’s decision before the opening of the free agent market and his decision gives the Falcons one less position to focus on.
Tony Gonzalez is reportedly wavering as he dwells on his retirement decision, with the odds of his fade into the glistening football sunset slowly decreasing from 95 percent, to possibly 50 percent. Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff likes those odds. Fantasy owners like those odds. Everyone likes those odds.
Embarking on the everlasting journey into the retirement abyss must be difficult for Gonzo when at the age of 36 this past season (he’ll turn 37 in a week), he recorded his best receiving yardage total (930 yards) and yards per game (58.1) since 2008. Even more impressively, he caught 93 passes after averaging 77.7 over the previous three seasons.
Gonzo is a pretty smart dude, and he’ll be just fine during his post-football life while pursuing other fulfilling endeavors. He’ll likely write at least nine more vegan diet books in an effort to help you look and feel like, um, Tony Gonzalez.
But dammit, those numbers. And this Falcons team with Matt Ryan, Roddy White, Julio Jones, etc. They were so close to the Super Bowl. Maybe just one more year Tony? Please?
We’ll wait to write the official Tony Gonzalez commemorative career post. As is the case with any athlete who’s nearing that everlasting career twilight, if there’s even a sliver of a shred of a chance that he’ll return, it could happen. Not that we doubt Gonzo at all, as he’s voiced his intentions repeatedly, and he seems genuine. But let’s not rush to get Favre’ed. Or Moss’ed.
But if we assume that he does indeed make his retirement official soon, Gonzalez is quite clearly destined for Canton, and he’s quite clearly one of the best (if not the best) tight ends to ever play the game. After his 16 seasons he leads the position in receiving yards, with his total currently sitting at 14,268, an average of 914.3 yards per year. He also has the most career receptions for a tight end, and the most +1,000 yard seasons among tight ends. So yes, he is/was a pretty good tight end.
There’s one Gonzalez stat that has some added quirk, though. His ability to hold on to a football is perhaps uncanny for his position.
Gonzo can still ball, guys. He tip-toed around the boundary at the back of the end zone to end the Falcons’ first quarter touchdown drive. He’s like a very large ballerina, or something (sorry for that mental image).
But first, there was this from fellow tight end Chase Coffman. The force has taught you well, young man…
Which set up this…
And oh look, this too…
Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez usually celebrates his touchdowns by attempting to dunk over the crossbar, although he’s probably never tried it while posterizing a referee. Until today that is.
A few players were considered for our prestigious player at the half award during the early games this week (Andy Dalton, Michael Bush). But if you make history in this league, you’re going to get the nod over a few yards and a touchdown anytime.
Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez became just the eighth player in NFL history to record 14,000+ receiving yards in a career.
