Chiefs’ Gonzalez running out of time to reach Super Bowl

T he cycle of Tony Gonzalez’s career, like that of every longtime NFL player, has carried its share of good times and bad.

His path, though, often feels to him as if it’s been going in reverse. His best Chiefs team was the one he played for as a rookie. The 13-3 Chiefs had home-field advantage and lost an epic playoff battle to Denver in large part because an apparent Gonzalez touchdown catch was wiped out when officials ruled him out of bounds.

His worst Chiefs team was the one he played on last year. The Chiefs lost their last nine games, finished 4-12 and embarked on a rebuilding program like none this franchise has seen, certainly not since Gonzalez arrived in 1997.

With rookies manning many positions, the Chiefs may be as far away from a trip to the Super Bowl as ever. That could mean Gonzalez, 32, will finish his career like another great tight end, Kellen Winslow.

Gonzalez appears destined to be a Hall of Famer who played on some good teams, but never a great one.

So while the chances of the Chiefs getting to the Super Bowl are slim, Gonzalez’s sense of urgency has never been greater.

That’s why news of a rebuilding program, at this stage of his career, didn’t sit well, at least not initially.

“At first I was frustrated — I was a little pissed off, to tell you the truth — because I’m winding down in my career and I’m thinking this is not what I signed on for last year when I redid my deal,” Gonzalez said. “It is what it is. There’s nothing we can do about it.

“That’s another thing that weighs on my mind all the time, and that’s part of the frustration. We’re getting rid of all these guys, and I’m getting on in my career. I haven’t even won a playoff game. That’s the reality of it. You can look back and say you had a pretty good career, but I want to be able to say I went to the playoffs, I won some playoff games and I went to the Super Bowl.”

His irritation was enough to send him into coach Herm Edwards’ office to voice his disapproval.

“He was a little bit concerned,” Edwards said. “He was worried about when this thing is coming to an end because he’s running out of time. I told him just because we’re going in this direction, it doesn’t mean we can’t win. When he looks at the players we brought in here and the attitude they have, he’s bought in.”

The Chiefs added a number of rookies, including first-round draft picks Glenn Dorsey and Branden Albert and second-round choice Brandon Flowers, who will start at cornerback.

Several others will play a lot. It’s all aimed at giving the Chiefs a better chance to win eventually, if not immediately.

“I think Coach has made that decision as far as getting rid of the older guys on the team and to go younger, and that’s fine with me,” Gonzalez said. “I think with the guys he brought in here, I’m definitely happy with it. After seeing the guys that they brought in and after the draft, it’s making a lot more sense.

“I’m realizing we’re a pretty good football team. There’s no doubt about it.”

But will the Chiefs be good enough to get to and win a Super Bowl by the time Gonzalez is finished playing?

Gonzalez said during training camp he was 95 percent certain he would play in 2009. The only thing that could lead him into retirement at the end of this season?

If the Chiefs win the Super Bowl.

“Tony and I were talking about it the other day that we’d better win,” said linebacker Donnie Edwards, a longtime teammate and friend. “When you get to the point where he is in his career, you have only so many seasons left. You want to win and achieve the ultimate goal.”

If Gonzalez finishes his career without playing in a Super Bowl, he would hardly be alone among great Chiefs players of his era. Will Shields and Derrick Thomas never played in a Super Bowl. Neil Smith had to leave the Chiefs and join the Broncos to do it.

“Not every great player gets to the Super Bowl,” said Shields, a 12-time Pro Bowl guard now in his second season of retirement. “Some players are destined for that, and some aren’t. I’m still satisfied with my career. I think I accomplished a lot of things that I wanted to personally.”

Gonzalez’s Hall of Fame credentials are solid even if he never gets to the Super Bowl. He already has more receptions (820) and touchdowns (66) than any other tight end in NFL history. He needs just 179 yards to overtake Shannon Sharpe for the all-time tight end lead in that category.

Still, Gonzalez sounds like a man talking himself into the fact it’s acceptable that he never played on football’s grandest stage.

“Maybe when I was younger, I used to worry a lot about what other people thought, but for me, I can’t dwell on the past,” he said. “It’s over, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Hey, we didn’t go to the playoffs, we didn’t win the Super Bowl. If that’s the way I end my career, it’s not going to take away anything as far as my feeling proud for what I’ve done.

“You’ve got to be proud of what you do. I’m not looking at my career like if I don’t ever win a Super Bowl, then it’s worthless. I do take a lot of satisfaction knowing that I worked hard and busted my ass and put together a really good career.

“Those are my goals right now. It’s really not an individual thing for me anymore. It’s been that way for the last two or three years for me. It’s really about going out there and putting the best team together. I can help that out a lot, not just on the field but in the locker room as well, helping these guys become the best players they can be.”

Occasionally, Gonzalez’s thoughts will drift back to the time when he was a rookie. The Chiefs were loaded, with players such as Shields, Thomas, Marcus Allen, Andre Rison, James Hasty and Dale Carter, and they faced the Broncos in the first playoff game.

Gonzalez had an apparent touchdown taken away when officials ruled he made the catch out of the end zone. The Chiefs wound up losing 14-10, and Gonzalez used to often wonder what would have been had the ruling gone in his favor.

“I think about it a lot,” Gonzalez said. “But that’s all over now. I used to think about it a lot more, but the older I get, the more I realize that I can’t live in the past. You’ve got to stay right here. We’ve got an opportunity right in front of us, and I really do believe that we’re going to be a good football team. We’ll be a lot better than we were last year, that’s for sure.

“Most people aren’t going to believe it. People in my own family are like, ‘Yeah, right, whatever.’ I’m telling you, we’re a lot better than last year and I feel like we’re a lot farther along. We’re still learning the offense, the defense has had a year underneath their belt, but it’s young guys. I think these young guys can play, I mean, they can go. It’s going to be a good year.”

But not a Super Bowl year. Again, Gonzalez is brought back to reality and the thoughts of his legacy.

“I’d love to get to a Super Bowl,” he said. “I think the city deserves it. The organization deserves it. Herm (Edwards) has been busting his tail. It’s something that I think we can get to. There’s no doubt about it.

“With the players that they’ve drafted and the guys that they’ve brought in, with the veteran leadership that we have on this team, it’s the first time in a long time that I feel like everybody is on the same page at this point.”