Good morning. I posted a column Tuesday night on MyAJC.com (subscription) about Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez missing three weeks of training camp before returning this week. The camp absence was part of his deal with the Falcons to push back retirement plans for one more season. As Gonzalez told me on Tuesday, “I wasn’t going to miss time with my family. If (the Falcons) wanted me to pay (a fine), I told them, ‘I’ll pay you.’ Because it was that important to me. I wasn’t (kidding) people. I was going to retire. I tell people, ‘I did retire for a couple of weeks. I came out of retirement.’”

Here’s a link to the full column.

Here are a couple of pretty good quotes that didn’t make the column that you might find interesting.

Gonzalez on a comment often attributed to former NFL coach Bill Parcells that once a player says he is thinking of retiring, he already has one foot out the door: “I’ve been thinking of retirement for five years. I think if anything it works the opposite. If you know you’re going to retire, you want to put the best product you can out there. You want people to remember you for what you did. I’d be embarrassed if I went out there and didn’t play the way I thought I was capable of playing. I wouldn’t have come back. I’m not the type of guy who’s going to play until the wheels fall off. I want to be one of the best when I’m out there.”

On the NFC title loss to San Francisco: “It hurt bad. It hurt more than any game I’ve ever been through in my career. Haunting. Like weeks after. It was on my mind. It still is.”

On the Huntington Beach High School quarterback who threw him passes: “He was throwing me the ball between practices. I was staying in shape. It was good. … I think the first one he threw was about 10 feet over my head.”

That high school quarterback will have stories to tell for the rest of his life.

So what are your thoughts on Gonzalez missing most of training camp? Did it bother you at all, or is it a non-issue as he and the Falcons say?

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