The Power Duo Has Got Us in Our Feelings
If their eyes didn’t have to be fixed toward the camera during the photoshoot, they were on each other. They genuinely enjoy being together, and you can tell. Whether it’s the way they look at one another, how they play off of each other during conversation or the way they joke back and forth, former NFL superstar and Hall of Fame candidate Tony Gonzalez and his wife, former Co-Host on “Beat Shazam,”October (Tobie) Gonzalez, are enjoying being in and with every moment, place and person they come in contact with. Eleven years and four kids later, Tony and Tobie continue to stay rooted in the same things they have been since they first met in 2003: quality time with each other, family and friends, whether at home or across the world.
While spending time as a family has always been a priority and something that happened consistently even during Tony’s 17-season-long football career, the end of his playing days meant more time together, which is something they say they feel lucky and thankful for.
“We’re in a very blessed situation where Tony only works during the football season right now and a little bit during the regular season, so unlike a lot of parents out there, we get a lot of extra time with our kids, so we take advantage of that,” Tobie says. “We don’t take it for granted. We enjoy it. We love being together and it doesn’t feel like work or like we have to make an effort because it’s something we love to do. It’s just part of our routine.”
Tony and Tobie share that they found the best way to spend time together is through traveling because of the way it enlightens and enhances a person’s character and life. For Tony, he learned this at a young age during his Clark Griswold-like road trips with his father, driving to the east coast and stopping everywhere along the way. “What I learned along the way is how there’s a lot of character [growth] in being a foreigner. Even though I’m still in America, I’m different in somebody else’s city or town, and so I think that it’s great character [growth] for children and adults.” Tony says. “It’s great for not just me, but for the kids, too, and for their well-being.” Tony and October Gonzalez
The now Fox Sports NFL Pregame Show Analyst looked to his wife, and she complimented her husband’s desires for their family and continued to talk about how much emphasis they put on how they raise their children, highlighting the importance of exposing their family to different cultures outside of their own. “It was a huge concern for us moving from Orange County to Beverly Hills and raising our kids around so much money and privilege,” Tobie shares. “All of those things that our kids [are] subjected to, you want to balance that out with showing them some culture, teaching them how to respect people who come from all different walks of life,” she says. “I think traveling has really gifted them with that knowledge and I remind them every day that it is a gift to be able to experience new things and see new places.”
For Tony and Tobie, they know the world is a big place and that traveling can do wonders when someone gets to experience people from all different walks of life, who have different religions, practices, foods and values. “That’s the beauty of traveling and the kids get to see it,” adds Tony. “We’re passionate about traveling and making that part of our experience.” Tony and October Gonzalez
Tony recalls his favorite vacation so far, their most recent family trip to attend Mindvalley U, a yearly conference held in a different city around the world. This year, the month-long event took place in Tallinn, Estonia. During the event, they attended lectures on everything from entrepreneurship and emotional intelligence to classes on leadership and what it means to be a feminist. Tony and Tobie said they find this type of education priceless since they feel strongly about customizing their children’s education through homeschooling and want to broaden their minds and create a love for learning. Tony and October Gonzalez
“We were out there learning something, but also, in the afternoon and at night we were all together having lunch and dinner in this beautiful medieval town and that just made it magical for me,” Tony says. “I just love that we were doing breakfast, lunch and dinner together, but during the day we went our own separate ways. We’re learning something but also getting good quality time together.” Tony and October Gonzalez
Naturally, his gaze fixes toward Tobie as he ends his sentence and she picks up where he left off, saying, “What makes it special is when you’re out of the country, you don’t have a lot of distractions like your friends or [the children’s] friends, activities, work and all of these different things that are pulling at you. When sharing a hotel room with your kids and you’re really discussing things with the people that you love the most—you’re just focused on each other.”
Even though traveling is their favorite thing to do together as a family, Tony, Tobie and the children love to spend time with each other and close friends and family while they’re home, sometimes having people over five days out of the week. They’re real ‘people people,’ as Tobie says. “We believe in community,” Tony starts to explain.
“Right,” Tobie chimes in. “It takes a village, and we’ve created our own village. It’s just a huge community of family and friends who are basically our family that we’re surrounded by all the time. We’re very social people. We’re very open door policy, very ‘everyone come over to our house.’” Tony and October Gonzalez
Tony and Tobie’s hospitality goes far beyond their front door; it stretches through the cities of Huntington Beach, Los Angeles and beyond. Knowing how fortunate they are to spend time together as a family and have a strong hand in their children’s education, they aspire to help those who don’t have the same opportunities.
For over four years, Tony has been involved in Scholars’ Hope, a charity focused on helping children in low-income areas where school dropout rates are high. Serving as a Scholars’ Hope Ambassadors, the Gonzalezes help the children in the program who are referred to as ‘flights’ as they start their educational journey in fourth grade and continue until they graduate high school. The program has a 100 percent graduation rate with a collective GPA of 3.8 with each graduate from the program going to college. Tony and October Gonzalez
“They’re showing that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, as long as you [have] the right people in your corner,” Tony says. Tony and October Gonzalez
In Los Angeles, Tobie is an ambassador at Baby2Baby, an organization founded by Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein that provides diapers, clothing and all basic necessities to low-income children 12 and under. Working with this organization, Tobie is a part of the organization’s donations to homeless and domestic shelters, foster care programs and children’s hospitals.
“It’s important to give parents an opportunity to get a leg up when it comes to supporting their families and getting a head start so that they can lead a better, healthier life,” Tobie says.
Choosing to be a part of these charities was an easy decision for the Gonzalezes because the purpose of each organization has the same desire they have for their own children. “It’s about developing good human beings,” Tony says. “It’s teaching kids how to talk for themselves, how to believe in themselves, how to get up when they get knocked down, how to read a room, how to be courteous, how to be grateful, how to conquer fears.
“A butterfly can’t see its wings, it doesn’t know how beautiful it is,” Tony continues. “But [these programs] teach kids to see how beautiful they really are and what they’re capable of doing and how magnificent they are.”
Whether it’s through charities at home or traveling abroad, the Gonzalezes are all about the people around them. It can be someone they just met, a friend or a family member, and undoubtedly, they will dedicate themselves to getting to know and spend time with who they’re with because that’s just who they are.
With their clear love for people, family and travel, there’s a certainty that they’re not slowing down anytime soon. As a family, they’ll continue to make an effort to be outside of themselves, to think of others and, as always, to see more of the world together. Tony and October Gonzalez
“The motto I live by is ‘the world is a great book and those who don’t travel only read one page,’” Tony says. “We are reading our book. We’re trying to read as many pages of it as we can as we travel with our family throughout the world.”
School is in Session: Having four children ages 17,10, 8 and 3, Tony and Tobie homeschool two of the four, the 10 and 8-year-old who they lovingly refer to as ‘the middles.’
Sundays Are for Dinner: Tony and Tobie host “Sunday Dinners” at their house every Sunday they are in town, each with a different theme whether it be Italian, Mexican, Greek—the list goes on! Every guest must bring a home-cooked meal to share. Tony and October Gonzalez
Put a Pin in it: Tony and Tobie have a travel map hung in their house and put a pin in every place they’ve been to!
Ciao! Out of the 24 different countries they’ve visited, Tony and Tobie have returned to Italy five times.
Oh, the Places You’ll go! So far, Tony, Tobie and the children have traveled to five countries together and they don’t plan on stopping there! Tony and October Gonzalez
Photoshoot Location:
Warwick
6507 W Sunset Blvd Tony and October Gonzalez
Los Angeles, CA 90028 Tony and October Gonzalez
323.460.6667 Tony and October Gonzalez
Written By: Kaitlynn Labit
Photographed By: Wil Cohen Tony and October Gonzalez
Styled By: Kaylee Jackson Tony and October Gonzalez
Hair and Makeup By: Heather Balaam using Oribe hair products Tony and October Gonzalez
