Video: Huddle Up with Tony GonzalezLegendary tight end visits Washington team that hasn't won a game since 2013.From one extreme to another, perhaps the greatest tight end in the history of football is reaching out to high school players.
In the first three episodes of Huddle Up with Tony Gonzalez, the future Hall of Famer visited with one of the most successful teams in Illinois, 2015 8A state champion Loyola Academy (Wilmette, Ill.).
In this installment he mentors
Clover Park (Lakewood, Wash.), which entered 2016 riding a 22-game losing streak.
The school is located on a military base near Tacoma. Families, their kids and players come and go. But the losing has remained.
When people ask two-way lineman
Isaih Carr what school he attends and he answers Clover Park, he gets largely the same response: "Oh you guys suck," he said.
HUDDLE UP WITH TONY GONZALEZ: CLOVER PARK EPISODE 2 Said center and noseguard
Vitally Tekmenzhi: "We've won one game my entire high school career. It's tough. But hopefully my senior year we can turn it around."
Enter Gonzalez, who was on both winning and losing teams in his brilliant career. He can offer plenty of perspective.
"We're all judged on winning and losing," Gonzalez said. "But when it comes down to it you've got to get the most out of you."
He shared that message with the team along with his humble beginnings in Pop Warner — "I was the worst kid on the team," he said.
HUDDLE UP WITH TONY GONZALEZ: CLOVER PARK EPISODE 3 Of course, he finished as the best at his position in NFL history in terms of receptions (1,325), receiving yards (15,127) and touchdowns (111).
The Warriors have dropped their first two games, but that is irrelevant according to Gonzalez, as long as they "Look in the mirror everyday and tell yourself, ‘I'm giving it my best shot.'" he told the team.
