There's very little left for Tony Gonzalez to accomplish in his historic career.
He's said he'll retire after this season and it's no secret he's chasing something that has eluded him for 15 seasons: a Super Bowl championship.
A playoff win has also failed to happen and this season looks like one of his better chances to accomplish both, even if it will be his last. With the Falcons off to a 3-0 start, it might be easy for Gonzalez to begin to think to the playoffs, potential wins and more, but he's put the brakes on that quickly.
He takes the old one-game-at-a-time approach and reminds everyone around him to savor every victory and moment of preparation over the course of the week. That's the only way they can get to what is not just his final goal, but the goal of all of his teammates, the Super Bowl.
"We want to win the final game of the season," he said. "That's the goal, but we know we have to win this week in order to get there. We're not going to look ahead, we're going to stay in the moment and enjoy it. Why look ahead? Let's enjoy this preparation; let's enjoy going out there playing the Carolina Panthers and hopefully we come out on top."
Beyond that, the future Hall of Fame tight end knows he's coming up on another milestone and he's looking forward to it, even if it's secondary to the real prize.
"I think the 100 touchdowns would be kind of cool," he said. "After that, my bucket list is playing in the final game of the season for the NFL and hopefully we can get that done. That's more important to me than anything else."
With 98 touchdown catches, Gonzalez will move into sole possession of eighth place all-time with 100 touchdowns. So far this season he has three touchdown catches, one in each game the Falcons have played to begin the season.
