Gates prepares for his debut
Now that he’s off the scout team, Antonio Gates is eager to make up for lost time.
The All-Pro tight end will make his debut Sunday when the San Diego Chargers visit the Denver Broncos.
While the Chargers were losing to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, Gates was finishing a three-game suspension for missing a team-imposed deadline for ending his training camp holdout.
“Obviously, I felt I let my team down because I wasn’t there to help them this past Sunday,” Gates said Wednesday. “It opens up an opportunity for us to go to Denver and take care of Denver because that was a lost opportunity.”
With Gates watching from the sideline, the Cowboys blitzed more and stacked the line against LaDainian Tomlinson so much that the star running back didn’t even touch the ball after the Chargers had a first-and-goal from the Dallas 7 with just more than a minute left. Aaron Glenn preserved the 28-24 victory by intercepting Drew Brees’ fourth-down pass in the end zone.
Injured McNabb vows to play
Donovan McNabb threw four touchdowns on a broken ankle. He won’t let a chest injury keep him out.
McNabb didn’t practice because of a bruised chest, but the five-time Pro Bowl quarterback said he’ll play in Philadelphia’s home opener against San Francisco on Sunday.
“Nothing will stop me from being on that field,” said McNabb, who was injured in the first quarter in the Eagles’ 14-10 season-opening loss at Atlanta on Monday night.
If McNabb can’t play – he’s listed as questionable – longtime backup Koy Detmer or Mike McMahon would get the call.
Johnson disputes abuser image
Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson, who turned himself in Monday to face an assault charge, contends he’s not an abuser of women.
“This is something I don’t want to be named for as a woman beater because that is not my M.O,” he said. “That is not how I was raised,”
Johnson faces an assault charge in connection with an altercation with his girlfriend.
Rams exec faces discipline
Samir Suleiman, an executive with the St. Louis Rams, will be reprimanded for leaving a threatening phone message on the voice mail of a St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist, the team said without elaborating.
On Aug. 28, sports columnist Bernie Miklasz wrote that he was disturbed by “infighting and politics” within the Rams organization, and said executives owe any head coach their support.
Suleiman left a message on Miklasz’s voice mail, stating, in part, “tell your source that I’m not a back-stabber, I’m a (expletive) throat slasher, and he’ll know the difference before it’s all said and done.”