ALAMEDA - It's always refreshing when an athlete is honest.
All too often football players on losing teams try to convince everyone just how good a team they really are when the facts are the team is losing, and it's not because good teams lose more than they win.
Here's what San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates had to say about the team's disappointing season on today's conference call with local writers.
The Chargers' season began with hopes of a Super Bowl run. But the Chargers are 4-8.
Then there was a last-second loss to Carolina and the team was jobbed on a bad call in Denver to fall to 0-2.
Gates, however, isn't making excuses.
"Well you can make the case for things not going our way but I'm a firm believer that you are what you are. We are a 4-8 team. That's the facts. Facts are facts in this league. You can't judge off of nothing else. There are situations that have occur that where plays are made in the last seconds of games that we felt we should have won. We had some unfortunate calls in the last second of games that we felt we should have won. But it is what it is. We have to find a way to get it turned around and that's what championship teams do. They deal with adversity. They accept constructive criticism when things aren't going their way and they just find a way to turn things around."
That kind of accountability from one of the team's best players is a reason the Chargers could rebound next season.
*Besides hearing some of the new Kanye West being played at practice, nothing much to report.
No sign of LB Ricky Brown (groin) or C Jake Grove (calf).
The full injury report will come from Tom Cable later in the afternoon.
--Jason Jones
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