Tony Gonzalez is a Hero

Whit Honea — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:01:00 GMT

Tony Gonzalez is on pace to be among the best, if not the best, tight ends of all time. Tight end is a football position and any resemblance to his ass is purely coincidence- and no, I'm not going to look.

Gonzalez was eating dinner in Hunnington Beach with his wife, his brother and his baby daughter when a patron at the next table started choking. This wasn't just heavy coughing and watery eyes choking, this was the everyone freezes and/or freaks-out kind of choking, like in the movies.

The choking man, Ken Hunter, had a piece of meat lodged in his throat and his dining companion started yelling, "He can't breathe, he can't breathe."

Gonzalez, who has never been trained in the Heimlich maneuver, realized that nobody else was going to act so he "jumped to his feet, wrapped his long, sinewy arms around the stricken man and began to squeeze. After a few seconds, the meat popped out and Hunter, a shipping company manager in Huntington Beach, recovered."

After the incident Hunter told the media, "Tony saved my life."

The story was so big that Gonzalez received a letter from President Bush (he can write?) and was even approached by Barack Obama at a campaign stop to discuss the heroics.

From the NFL:

"I never anticipated what an impact this would have," said Gonzalez, who arrived in River Falls on Thursday for the Chiefs' training camp.

"But now, looking back, I think with all the negative stuff that's in the media these days about NFL players and athletes in general, when a story like that comes out, it really grabs people's attention. I know it was an incredible situation the way it came down. I believe things happen for a reason. Hopefully, there'll be a domino affect."

Chiefs president Carl Peterson was traveling in Europe when his star tight end made news off the football field.

"Nothing surprises me about the abilities of Tony Gonzalez," Peterson said. "Thank God he was there, in the right place at the right time and reacted the way he did. The story was all over the world."

Shortly afterward, Peterson happened to run into Steve Tisch, part owner of the New York Giants, in France.

"We hugged each other and right away he said, `Hey, how about your tight end saving that guy's life?"'

Good for Tony Gonzalez and lucky for Ken Hunter, kind of pathetic for everyone else in the restaurant.

Source/Photo

Tony Gonzalez' Best Play: The Heimlich Maneuver

sweatpantsmom — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:25:00 GMT

I don't know a thing about football, but something tells me new dad Tony Gonzalez just scored another touchdown. A California man says the Kansas City Chiefs tight end saved him from choking to death.

“Tony saved my life. There’s no doubt,” says Ken Hunter, who was dining in a Huntington Beach restaurant on Thursday night when he began choking on a piece of meat. “Tony came up behind me and gave me the Heimlich maneuver. Thank God he was there.”

Gonzalez was dining at the next table with his wife, brother and 5-week old daughter when he heard Hunter's companion yelling for help. “She was screaming, ‘He can’t breathe, he can’t breathe,”’ Gonzalez said in a phone interview. “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.”

Gonzalez jumped out of his chair and began performing the Heimlich maneuver on Hunter. “After just a few seconds, the piece of meat popped out,” Hunter said. “I could breathe again. It’s a good thing Tony is so tall because I had stood up — I think.”

Hunter, a longtime Chargers fan, was asked by a reporter how he would react if his favorite team were up against Kansas City and Gonzalez was poised to catch what would be the game-winning touchdown.

“I’m going to be yelling for Tony to catch the ball,” an understandably grateful Hunter said. “I think all my friends will understand.”

Source

FameCrawler : tony gonzalez

Tony Gonzalez is a Hero

Tony Gonzalez' Best Play: The Heimlich Maneuver