Getty Head coach Joe Judge of the New York Giants.
As one Twitter user put it perfectly, New York Giants wideout Golden Tate “got speared by the man [Jalen Ramsey] like prime Goldberg on national television” on Sunday.
However, despite some crushing blows the real fireworks didn’t start flying until after the final whistle. Tate and Ramsey engaged in fisticuffs postgame over what Tate deemed “disrespect” that the cornerback showed towards the receiver’s sister, who Ramsey shares two daughters with.
The Giants did their best to push the altercation “under the rug” as the team did not make Tate available for postgame Zoom interviews, this despite numerous requests.
However, on Monday the G-Men finally addressed the situation, in which coach Joe Judge made some revealing claims to the media, namely that Tate was “defending himself”:
“I talked to a number of our players and the guys that were involved and I had enough of a kind of eyewitness standpoint for myself after me and Sean (McVay) had an exchange at a midfield,” Judge said.
“I turned around — it was kind of happening right there in front of me, so I got a quick glimpse of that. There was a punch thrown, Golden was defending himself. I was told he wasn’t one that threw the punch, and everybody involved was trying to break it up,” he proclaimed.
While Judge appeared to cast the majority of the blame Ramsey’s way, he certainly didn’t sound like a coach who was enthused by the situation as a whole, or the fact that he will likely be hearing from his higher-ups over it.
“I don’t want John Mara, Steve Tisch or anybody involved this team to have to deal with something like this after the game,” Judge stated. “This isn’t a why we play the game. We have 60 minutes, you know, to beat the hell out of each other, legally between the whistles. We don’t need anything extra after.”
Follow Heavy on Giants for all the latest stories, rumors and viral content!
Tate Could Face Discipline
While Judge pointed the finger Ramsey’s way, the NFL will ultimately make the final call on if Tate, Ramsey or any other player involved in the scuffle for that matter, faces repercussions from their actions.
The league is reportedly investigating the brawl, but could run into some tactical issues as explained by the New York Post.
The investigation could be complicated by the lack of footage to determine how the Tate-Ramsey feud escalated as soon as the final whistle sounded. Fox did not have available any Tate-Ramsey footage — only the aftermath of players being separated — and there were no fans in the stands to capture it on iPhone cameras and upload to social media.
In the meantime, the Giants don’t appear to have any plans on disciplining Tate.
“Based on the information I was given, and what I saw with my own eyes, and what our players gave me, it didn’t sound like there is an immediate need for that,” Judge told the media. “We’ll look into it if there is. Obviously we’ll always take care of our players.”