JUST because his team lost to the Colts during last Sunday’s playoffs doesn’t mean red-hot tight end Tony Gonzalez is standing still.

Most likely, the six-foot-four, 248-pound hunk licked his wounds, celebrated his stellar season with team-mates at his favorite Kansas City hangout, Mi Cocina, and is already on the court training for the sport he says helped him hone the phenomenal skills he has in football — basketball.

"It’s my first love — I am chasing the dream to be the first pro player to play in both the NFL and NBA, so that when I am 60, I don’t look back and wish I had," he said.

It takes a month to get into basketball shape, Gonzalez figures, but the aspiring power forward is not worried about risking injury. Two teams have already courted him — the Miami Heat and the Lakers, and he did play in their summer camps, but because he was warming the bench more than he was used to, the All-American in both sports left the teams.

"It was embarrassing — fans had signs saying, ‘Let Tony play," he remembers.

Mentally, number 88 is ready for a 10-day NBA contract on any team —even if it’s just for seconds.

"Even if I play one minute — I could say I did it," he says. "I want a team to take a gamble on me, it will be a novelty, fans would want to see it," adding mischievously, "The Knicks would be great!"

Isiah Thomas are you listening?

For an athlete who plays in the toughest sport, Gonzalez’ off-the-field hobbies — piano, writing and reading — are surprising.

His home décor, with its jungle and tiger motifs, hints of his bachelor status, but a baby grand piano, spirituality and motivational books?

"After a game or practice, it’s soothing," he says of the instrument that he recently took up. As a kid, Gonzalez says he knew how to hit a couple of notes to the "Chariots of Fire" tune on the family piano. Now he’s added "Jingle Bells" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" to his repertoire, thanks to weekly lessons.

Gonzalez — whose heritage mirrors a multi-cultural America — has Cape Verdian, Jamaican, African-American, white and even a little Argentinian in his background. While he checks black and Latino on the census, make no mistake about it — he likes it that way.

"I am a big melting pot," he laughs.

"I like being able to identify with so many groups."

One of 19 Latinos to play in pro football, he feels comfortable with the responsibility of being a role model to millions of kids.

"When you are given this athletic ability, you have to make it work for something positive or you are wasting it," he says.

Gonzalez keeps very busy off the field. He’s taking Spanish lessons and plans to spend part of the summer in Mexico in an intense Spanish-language program, and he spends as much time as he can with his new love, his 20-month-old son Nikko.

Women and relationships are a favorite topic. His cell phone ring is a recording of a woman’s sultry voice, saying, "Hey sexy, pick up the phone." It’s a joke, he’s quick to say.

What is not a joke is the difficulty he says he has finding true love.

"It’s hard to have a relationship and play pro ball. You have to have a real secure woman ... It doesn’t seem fair to be with a woman if you can’t give her the time."

The sexy player recognizes, too, that the world he is now part of may not be reality, strictly speaking.

"I realize that I am not living in a normal world — this entertainer’s and athlete’s world — is just not normal, not reality. You are talking about people in their twenties with millions of dollars. It’s not normal."

But Gonzalez says he has his family to help him keep it real. He has about a dozen adoptive brothers and sisters, and his dad, stepdad, uncles, cousins and, especially, his brother and mom.

"I’m a momma’s boy — not a secret — the biggest and most influential forces in my life are her and my big brother."