Antonio Gates has been playing in the NFL so long that he feels somewhat out of touch these days.
NFL Films was visiting the Oakland Raiders’ locker room to conduct voting for its annual Top 100 players in the league poll. A few players said they had voted linebacker Khalil Mack, their former teammate, first.
Gates had a funny response to the poll, saying he doesn’t even know 50 players in the league anymore.
My favorite response I heard to this earlier in the week was Antonio Gates saying, “I don’t even know 50 people in the league anymore.” https://t.co/3UreDIocBB
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) December 22, 2018
Calling Gates an elder statesman would be an understatement. He’s 38 now and has been playing since 2003. Back then, Peyton Manning and Steve McNair were co-MVPs, Ray Lewis was Defensive Player of the Year, and Anquan Boldin and Terrell Suggs were the offensive and defensive rookies of the year. That list should make you feel old, and it probably does for Gates.
Gates is surprisingly still racking up stats too. He has 25 catches for 312 yards and two touchdowns this season, even if he doesn’t know the names of the players he was doing it against.
