Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez might not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound or run faster than a speeding bullet or use his X-ray vision to check out Lois Lane’s thong. Still, Gonzalez made like Clark Kent’s alter ego and saved a man’s life recently.
Per the Associated Press, Gonzalez applied the Heimlich maneuver on July 3 to a man who was choking on a piece of meat at a restaurant.
“[The man’s wife] was screaming, ‘He can’t breathe, he can’t breathe,’” Gonzalez told the AP. “The whole restaurant was quiet. Nobody was doing anything. Then I saw he was turning blue. Everybody in the restaurant was just kind of sitting there wide-eyed.”
The amazing part is that, but for Gonzalez’s willingness to intervene, the man, Ken Hunter, might have died. Despite the presence of plenty of other people, at least some of whom have at some point heard about the fairly simple procedure for coming to the aid of a person who is unexpectedly choking on foodstuffs.
And so Hunter, a lifelong Chargers fan, is now primarily a Tony Gonzalez fan.
Though we’ll continue to maintain our official rooting position of disliking all teams equally, we credit Gonzalez for having the willingness to act at a time when everyone else in the room was paralyzed by apathy and/or fear.
_2.gif)





July 8th, 2008 at 10:46 am
If there was this ‘diffusion of responsibility’ dynamic in the room then what he did is even more impressive. Takes a clearheaded guy to see everyone else sitting doing nothing and still take action. Nice job Tony.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 8th, 2008 at 11:41 am
There’s a impostor on here. What’s wrong… can’t think of your own ID?
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 8th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Also at the restaurant during the incident were Brett Favre and his wife.
The reason that no one else stepped in to save the choking man is because Brett repeatedly got out of his seat and took 2 steps toward the victim, then returned to his table. Like the Packers, the other diners were simply unsure of what to do, and put in a horrible spot.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 8th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Cowboysmitty9,
The guy said he would root for Tony Gonzalez, not the Chiefs, so maybe you read into that wrong. But if a player on a divisional rival of the team you root for saved your life, I hope you would at least root for that guy. I hope your own life means slightly more to you than your alliance to your team. I’d expect that logic from a Raider fan, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Ofcourse a Raider fan wouldn’t own a computer and be able to read and write.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 8th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It’s meeting the man of your dreams, then meeting his beautiful wife
It’s watching a tightend scoring against your team, and then he ends up saving your life..
And isn’t it ironic…don’t you think
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: Not yet rated
July 8th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Nice job Tony. Off all the people in the place to step up to the plate, it’s the celebrity. Not all players are selfish premadonna ass clowns. I can already picture a new endzone celebration for him in the San Diego game which involves punching himself in the stomach and spitting the football out of his mouth.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 8th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Junior and DanFoutsBeard,
When I said the guy switched team alligences I was talking about the story they had about him on Yahoo.com. The guy said in that article that if the chargers where playing the chiefs and Gonzo caught the Game winning TD he wouldnt be rooting for the chargers but he would be rooting for Gonzo to beat them. Now if Donavan McHurtalot saved my life some how I would probably root for him in other games he played but I wouldnt want him to beat the Boyz.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: Not yet rated