{"id":864760,"date":"2026-04-12T11:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/864760\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T11:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:21:17","slug":"chiefs-legend-tony-gonzalez-recalls-his-decision-to-join-the-falcons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/864760\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs legend Tony Gonzalez recalls his decision to join the Falcons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During a recent appearance on the <a href=\"https:\/\/m.youtube.com\/watch?v=d-jcDQp5npQ&amp;list=PLFv2RZFaqAgpiFH1E5zEBHkOEK1_BDUA8&amp;index=17&amp;pp=iAQB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:\u2018Get Got\u2019 podcast;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;\u2018Get Got\u2019 podcast&quot;}\" class=\"link \">\u2018Get Got\u2019 podcast<\/a> hosted by Marshawn Lynch. Tony Gonzalez revisited his controversial decision to leave the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/kansas-city-chiefs\/339\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Kansas City Chiefs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Kansas City Chiefs&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> for the Atlanta Falcons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said Atlanta made my career, and the Kansas City fans hated that. I still kind of stand by that,\u201d said Gonzalez, \u201cThe reason why is you play so long, I was 33 years old at the time, and you just want a chance to win. I\u2019ll never win a Super Bowl, obviously, I never even played in one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>During his time in Atlanta, Gonzalez remained productive late in his career, recording 409 receptions for 4,187 yards and 35 touchdowns over five seasons. The 2012 Atlanta Falcons were Super Bowl contenders, going 13-3, but fell short in the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe closest I ever got was when we went to the NFC Championship game,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThat makes all the difference in the world because I had done everything. I\u2019m so grateful to be able to play in that game, let alone a Super Bowl, and if I would\u2019ve stayed in Kansas City, that would\u2019ve never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez spent 12 seasons with the Chiefs, earning 10 Pro Bowl selections and accumulating 8 seasons with at least 900 receiving yards. He finished his legendary run with 916 catches for 10,940 yards and 76 touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Chiefs Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/chiefswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/chiefs\/2026\/04\/12\/kansas-city-chiefs-legend-tony-gonzalez-recalls-his-decision-to-join-the-atlanta-falcons\/88839558007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Chiefs legend Tony Gonzalez recalls his decision to join the Falcons;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Chiefs legend Tony Gonzalez recalls his decision to join the Falcons&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Chiefs legend Tony Gonzalez recalls his decision to join the Falcons<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a recent appearance on the \u2018Get Got\u2019 podcast hosted by Marshawn Lynch. Tony Gonzalez revisited his controversial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,118,110,311,6,252,33232],"class_list":{"0":"post-864760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-kansas-city","14":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","15":"tag-marshawn-lynch","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","18":"tag-tony-gonzalez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116391476144403686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}