Gonzalez finished his career with 14 Pro Bowl selections, the most for a tight end and second-most in league history, in addition to receiving six first-team All-Pros.

[4][5] His paternal grandmother was Jamaican, with part Scottish ancestry; and his mother's family is African-American, with mixed European roots.

[11] Gonzalez chose to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in communications and played both football and basketball.

[12] As a member of the California Golden Bears football team, he played tight end under future NFL coach Steve Mariucci.

[21] The 1999 season saw Gonzalez again improving when he caught 76 passes for 849 yards and a career-high 11 touchdown receptions, earning his first Pro Bowl selection.

[29][30][31][32] During the 2002 offseason, Gonzalez briefly resumed his basketball career, playing for the Miami Heat in the NBA Summer League.

[34][35] Despite never considering bringing Gonzalez to training camp due to his ongoing football career, then coach Pat Riley later stated that "If he ever would have pursued it, I think he would have been a 10-year pro".

[45][46] Gonzalez's single-season record of 102 receptions by a tight end stood for 8 years, until it was broken by Jason Witten during the 2012 season.

[55] In week 4 of the 2008 season, Gonzalez became NFL all-time leader in receiving yards for a tight end with 10,064, surpassing Shannon Sharpe.

[62] In his first regular season game with Atlanta against the Miami Dolphins, Gonzalez caught a touchdown pass from Matt Ryan and became the 21st player, and the first tight end, in NFL history with 11,000 receiving yards.

[66] In the 2010 regular season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Gonzalez made his 1,000th career reception, making him the seventh player in NFL history to do so and the first tight end.

[67] Gonzalez had his best performance as a Falcon two weeks later against the defending Super Bowl champions New Orleans Saints, as caught eight catches for 110 yards and a touchdown to help lead Atlanta to an overtime victory.

In Gonzalez's first playoff game in five years, the Falcons were defeated by the eventual Super Bowl champions Green Bay Packers.

[71] After the lockout was eventually lifted by the league, Gonzalez was adamant he had at least three seasons left in him and was excited at the prospects of returning to the Falcons who were widely considered to be Super Bowl contenders.

[77] In the 2012 season opener, Gonzalez played in Arrowhead Stadium against the Chiefs for the first time in his career, which ended with a Falcons' victory.

[88] He would later be named a second alternate for the Pro Bowl that season, and was added to the roster when San Francisco 49ers tight end Vernon Davis declined the invitation.

It was his 14th and final Pro Bowl appearance, which at the time tied him with Bruce Matthews and Merlin Olsen for the most selections for the game.

Additionally, he also owns several Chiefs team records and at the time of his retirement, he finished in the top 10 in many receiving categories for any position.

[102] On April 28, 2022, it was announced during the 2022 NFL draft that Gonzalez will return to broadcasting after a one-year hiatus, and join Amazon as a studio analyst for Thursday Night Football for the 2022 season.

[104] In March 2015, Gonzalez hosted You Can't Lick Your Elbow on the National Geographic Channel, which ran for six episodes.

[106] Gonzalez competed against linebacker Ray Lewis in an episode of Spike's Lip Sync Battle, which aired on February 2, 2017.

He subsequently experimented with a vegan diet after reading The China Study, but he and his nutritionist, Mitzi Dulan, ultimately decided that eating meat occasionally would be best for his performance.

[125] Gonzalez only eats organic fruits and vegetables, free-range chicken, grass-fed beef (no more than 18 ounces a month), and fish.

[9] On July 3, 2008, while dining with his family at a restaurant in Huntington Beach, California, Gonzalez noticed a fellow diner choking on a piece of meat at a nearby table, unable to breathe.

[9] On a season 9 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots, Gonzalez learned that his great-great-great-grandfather, George, was sold away from his wife Polly and children to a nearby slave owner.

In 1866, a year after the end of the Civil War, George and Polly were found listed on a cohabitation record, meaning they had gotten married, as soon as it became legal for them to do so.

The book, co-written with Mitzi Dulan, the former nutritionist for the Chiefs, details his diet and workout routine and provides practical suggestions for others to follow the same path.

[136] Later in 2009, Gonzalez co-founded All-Pro Science,[137] a sports nutrition company that manufactured a complete line of protein shakes, vitamins and other supplements.

The products in the APS line follow a similar philosophy to the one set forth in Gonzalez's book, focusing on a balance of foods from all-natural sources.

From 2013 to 2017,[138] Gonzalez worked with FitStar,[139] a company that makes mobile fitness apps, helping people get in shape with customized workouts delivered via the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.