There must have been a lot of behind-the-scenes action over the past couple of days, because Antonio Gates extended that paltry one-year contract to six.

Now the way the Chargers organization and Gates agent tells it, and the way the AP reported it, it was Gates that blinked:

Agent Andre Colona said he thought Gates' market value ``obviously was being one of the top two paid tight ends in the league. But like I said, obviously that was the number I was reaching for. It was going to take a certain resolve to get to that point, and he said, 'You know what, 'Dre, don't worry about that, let's just get what we can get now because I want to be a Charger and end all this stuff.''

Colona refused to say where Gates' deal puts him in the hierarchy of tight ends.

``I will say that he was comfortable with where we were. He didn't want to, I guess, go the road to go where we were really trying to go,'' Colona said.

On Sunday, Chargers general manager A.J. Smith said negotiations, which began 10 months ago, were ``dead in the water.''

On Tuesday, Smith said: ``All of a sudden we got a call and the contract was done. Sometimes deals are struck in a couple of hours, sometimes they take 10 months. I wish it were a lot quicker. It wasn't.''

That sounds about right, correct?

Well here's a little twist, as the guys on OkayPlayers' Sports Board tipped me to KFFL's Sports Wire, with this:

Chargers | Gates Contract Details
Tue, 23 Aug 2005 12:19:47 -0700

Updating earlier stories, ESPNews reports San Diego Chargers TE Antonio Gates received a six-year contract that will pay him approximately $4 million per season with an additional $9.2 million possible through incentives.

I really do hope this is correct, because Gates did deserve to get paid this season; definitely more than the bare 3-year minimum provided by that one-year contract.

Since I did give the Chargers a wee bit of criticism for getting into this mess, I suppose a congratulations on doing the right thing is appropriate at this time as well.