Before Antonio Gates was hit with a four-game suspension last week, Shannon Sharpe thought for sure the Chargers tight end would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when his career ended.
Now that Gates has been suspended though, Sharpe doesn't feel the same way.
The former Broncos tight end, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011, thinks the suspension "calls into question everything that" Gates has ever accomplished.
"I thought he was a slam dunk, first-ballot (Hall of Fame) guy," Sharpe said on Sirius XM NFL radio this week. "I know Antonio a little bit, but it's so unfortunate. He cheated himself, and he cheated the game."
Gates has 10,014 career receiving yards and 99 career touchdowns, which ranks ninth all-time, but Sharpe isn't sure how valid those statistics are now that Gates has been suspended for violating the NFL's policy on performance enhancing substances.
"It calls into question everything that he's ever accomplished," Sharpe said. "If he does it at the beginning of his career because he was an undrafted free agent, people are gonna say he did it to get in the league. Now he did it Year 13, Year 14 -- People are going to say he did it to remain in the league. It does, it makes you question everything someone has ever accomplished."
If Gates does get elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you can bet there's at least one person he won't want in Canton: Sharpe.
It's really too bad for both guys that Sharpe is calling out Gates because the tight end position is an exclusive one in the Hall of Fame. Sharpe's election in 2011 was the first time a tight end had been elected to the Hall of Fame since 1999, when Ozzie Newsome was voted in.
