Golden Tate did not travel to Washington for the New York Giants‘ Week 9 NFC bout on Sunday. The disciplinary decision comes in connection to a recent slew of varying outbursts over displeasure of usage.
On Saturday night, less than 24 hours before kickoff, the veteran hinted at what the Giants’ offense could be missing come gametime. Tate took to Twitter in response to a video captioned “78 seconds of Golden Tate going out of his way to humiliate whichever defensive back he just scored on.”
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Timeline of Tate-Giants Fallout
Tate’s whirlwind week started on Monday when the veteran hauled in a marvelous touchdown reception in the final seconds of an eventual 25-23 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Targeted just three times on the night, Tate turned to cameras after securing only his 22nd reception of the season to voice his displeasure with his recent usage. “Throw me the damn ball,” Tate demanded. Little did Tate likely know his wife, Elise, was spewing that same notion to her Instagram followers on Monday night as well.
Two days later, Tate was barred from the facility and told to stay home from practice as a repercussion of his actions on Monday night. To make matters worse, Tate spent his day off liking tweets calling for the his own release.
The 11-year-pro returned to the practice field on Thursday, logging two consecutive full participant sessions to close out the week, but not in his typical role. Tate appeared to be delegated to the scout team, donning a red No. 17 jersey and seemingly simulating Washington wideout Terry McLaurin. Head coach Joe Judge appeared to play down Tate’s role in practice as a common occurrence due to a limited number of healthy players. However, cornerback James Bradberry seemed quite a bit more surprised by the situation.
“It’s a little different,” Bradberry admitted to reporters this week. “He gave me a good example of what I’m going to see on Sunday. Golden, he’s a veteran guy, runs good routes, just that veteran savviness to him. He knows how to get open.”
Despite his recent demotion and deactivation, the belief in New York at this current time is the Giants are not ready to cut bait with Tate just yet. ESPN’s Jordan Raanan doesn’t expect the team to cut Golden Tate barring any further incident. Missing this week’s game is the punishment for his actions on Monday night.
A rumored trade candidate since the summer, New York failed to find a suitor for Tate at the trade deadline, likely due to the fact that he is still owed $3.8 million for the remainder of this season. Were Tate released either now or following the season, he will count $4.7 million in dead money against the salary cap in 2021.
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Golden Tate Breaks Silence After Benching