FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Tony Gonzalez has no intention of pulling a Ray Lewis before retirement.
There won’t be any lining up with the defense for the final play. Certainly there won’t be anything resembling the Baltimore linebacker’s trademark dance.
“You don’t want to see me dance,” Gonzalez joked Thursday, chuckling at the very thought. “That’s not a pretty thing. Trust me.”
While his dance skills may need some work, Gonzalez has hit just about every mark during his 16 years in the NFL.
But there’s one glaring omission.
As hard as it seems to believe, given his lengthy list of accomplishments while becoming perhaps the greatest tight end in football history, Gonzalez has never won a playoff game.
The gaping hole on his playoff resume eats at Gonzalez deeply.
“I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “I really, really, really want to win this game.”
If the 36-year-old Gonzalez is to be believed, he’s down to his final chance. The Atlanta tight end has maintained all year that retirement is 95 percent certain after the final game, and he’s not backed down despite having his best season as a Falcon in one of the NFL’s most potent offenses.
So, if he doesn’t get it done Sunday, when the top-seeded Falcons (13-3) host the surging Seattle Seahawks (12-5) in an NFC divisional game, there likely won’t be a chance for a do-over.
“For me, obviously, this could be it,” Gonzalez said. “There is no tomorrow. There is no saying, ‘We’ll get ’em next year.’ It’s about going out there and trying to finish on the right note.”
He’s already done more than enough to start writing his speech for Canton. No tight end in NFL history has more receptions (1,242), receiving yards (14,268), touchdown catches (103), 100-yard games (30), Pro Bowl appearances (12) and 1,000-yard seasons (four).
This season, he led the Falcons with 93 receptions, no small feat on a team that also includes Roddy White and Julio Jones. He’s totaled 930 yards receiving, his best output since being traded from Kansas City to the Falcons four years ago, eclipsed only by his 1,000-yard seasons with the Chiefs.
Fanatical about his workout program and always on the lookout for any new trend or discovery that might help him stay in peak physical condition, Gonzalez might not be quite as fast as that two-sport player who entered the league with the Chiefs in 1997. But he’s in tune with his body, which is why quarterback Matt Ryan will always start looking for No. 88 when everyone else is covered.
“I tell him he’s old all the time, so I guess his age does cross my mind every now and then,” the 27-year-old Ryan said with a smile. “But he certainly doesn’t play that way. He keeps himself in perfect shape, takes care of himself as well as anybody. That’s why I keep telling him he could play a couple of more years.”
The Falcons have made it clear they would love for Gonzalez to put off retirement forat least one more season, and he’s left a slight crack open to a possible return.
He won’t be making any definite plans before his final game, as Lewis did with Baltimore; in fact, there’s unlikely to be any sort of announcement right after the season, either.
“It will probably be well into the off season,” Gonzalez revealed Thursday, about as definitive as he’s been on how this will all play out. “I want to make sure that I make the right decision.”
He paused and considered his next words carefully.
“I’m not going to play that game with the media, and I’m really not going to play that game with my team,” Gonzalez said. “So, we’ll see.”
This is the fourth time Gonzalez has been on a 13-victory team heading into the playoffs. Just two years ago, the Falcons were in the exact same position as they are now, needing two victories at home to reach the Super Bowl. Instead, they were blown out in the divisional round by Green Bay 48-21.
A first-round loss to the New York Giants in last year’s playoffs left Gonzalez 0 for 5 in the postseason.
He believes this is his best chance yet to finally end the drought, playing on a tight knit team with loads of talent.
And, when he’s all alone and his mind wanders a bit, he’ll envision what it would be like to be in the middle of the field with confetti falling all around in his final game.
To not only be a playoff winner, but to be a champion.
“Maybe if we had won the Super Bowl in my first year,” he said, “it wouldn’t have been as sweet doing it in my last year.”
Sports, Pages 24 on 01/11/2013