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There are locker room curfews in the NFL for a reason. Ask any veteran and you’ll hear stories about late-night antics, missed bed checks, and the coach quietly losing it behind the scenes. And Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez had to go through it with the Kansas City Chiefs. But when Gonzalez came on the Get Got Podcast, he didn’t care about curfew. At least not in the textbook sense. What mattered for him was simple: “Get to the game, show up and play and perform like I know you can perform, then I don’t care.” He explained why the Chiefs, despite their talent, couldn’t seal the deal. ADVERTISEMENT “That’s the mature locker room that you guys had, and why you guys were so good. That’s hard, actually. I played on teams where there was there’s no accountability. When I was in Kansas City, we never won, and guys are out of control at times.” Tony said that in reply to what co-host Marshawn Lynch said about his time in the league. Lynch had no clue why curfews would even matter. His Seattle Seahawks had a crew that policed themselves. “At the time when I had got drafted there like it ain’t nothing that we had a lot of guys in trouble on that team, and I’m talking about like real trouble like not like curfew missing trouble. [But] I mean, judgement was out the window…And then because…we all held each other to a different kind of standard and accountability… ‘Oh yeah, you was late today,’” Lynch said. ADVERTISEMENT The Chiefs had top talent but no discipline. Tony called it what it was. When leadership comes up short, even a legend can get dragged down by the chaos. Over 270 games, 14 Pro Bowls, and six first-team All-Pro honors, Gonzalez redefined the role of tight ends. ADVERTISEMENT Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports The difference is stark. A legendary player, with Hall of Fame credentials, is held back not by his talent but by the culture surrounding him. However, after playing 12 years with the Chiefs, including six seasons with the same quarterback, fans might expect some loyalty. Instead, Tony crowned someone else as his favorite quarterback and not Trent Green. Why didn’t Gonzalez choose Green? In the same podcast, Michael Robinson asked Gonzalez to name the best quarterback he ever played with, but Green didn’t even get a mention. When asked if Matt Ryan topped his list, Gonzalez responded instantly: “Yeah,” and then doubled down with a highlight reel of reasons why. ADVERTISEMENT “Without a question. When I got to Matt [Ryan], I was 33 years old. And so if I would have had him my whole career…I would have put up some major numbers cuz I think in the five years I was with him, I averaged around 80 something catches, almost 1,000 yards, eight touchdowns. And I’m an old man after running around. He was, without a doubt, nothing against those other guys I played with, but you saw what he did with Julio [Jones] and Roddy [White] and all those guys. He’s the MVP of the league,” Tony said. The problem with Gonzalez’s praise of Ryan is this: there’s nothing truly special about his stats with the Falcons compared to what he achieved with the Chiefs. The numbers he mentioned reaching? He had already crushed those milestones long before joining Atlanta. In fact, after joining the Falcons, Gonzalez never touched the 1,000 receiving yards mark in a season, something he did four times with Kansas City. Take 2004, for example, when he hauled in 102 receptions to lead the entire NFL in catches. And yes, that was with Green throwing him the ball. ADVERTISEMENT So it makes you wonder: why name Ryan his favorite while implicitly criticizing the Chiefs’ locker room culture? There’s only one reasonable conclusion: Tony just didn’t vibe with the culture in Kansas City.
