Time Out! Golden Tate Not at Practice After MNF Outburst
Giants receiver Golden Tate wants more passing targets than he's been getting lately.
But he'll have to wait another day to get some of those targets in practice as Tate, who exploded in frustration during the Giants' loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Monday Night Football after he caught a touchdown pass, was not at Wednesday's practice.
Following his touchdown reception, Tate screamed, "Throw me the ball!" into the camera. His frustrations were then magnified when his wife took to Instagram in a now-deleted story to call out the Giants for not giving her husband more opportunities.
That combination of actions was likely the last straw for Giants head coach Joe Judge, who met with the receiver Wednesday morning.
Although he declined to go into specifics, Judge did say that Tate, who was heavily rumored to be on the trading block, would not be at Wednesday’s walk-through practice. He quickly added that Tate would be back in the building with the team on Thursday.
“We're going to deal with this internally,” Judge said when asked to elaborate on whether Tate’s absence was discipline related. “That's all I'm going to really say about that.”
Judge was initially asked about Tate’s outbursts by reporters after Monday’s game, a revelation that seemed to catch him off guard at first and one that Judge eventually admitted he didn’t notice since he was locked into other aspects of the game.
In response to the questions received about Tate since the game, Judge said Tate still had a role with the team.
"His role is the same as every player on our team,” Judge said. “Show up to work, work hard, put the team first, and when you have the ball come your way, to make a play on it. If you're not involved with the ball directly at you, to block, help the quarterback."
In his second season with the Giants, Tate has only been targeted 29 times in seven games this season versus the 85 pass targets he had in 11 games last year, when he lost four games due to a league-imposed suspension and one due to an injury.
He’s caught 22 of his pass targets for 226 yards, but he’s also seen his overall snap counts decrease over the last several weeks.
Judge wasn’t asked about Tate’s wife’s social media post, but he couldn’t have been too happy with that either, given that in some cases the sentiments expressed by a player’s relative can be construed as an extension of how the player feels.
“We talk to our players a lot about responsibility on social media,” Judge said Tuesday. “We’re very specific about keeping some things off social media in terms of how it reflects to the New York Giants and organizationally.”
Judge has made it clear from his introductory press conference that he doesn’t want anyone around who isn’t all about the team first, a sentiment he reiterated on Wednesday.
“It has to be team first for everyone in this building, every coach and every player—has to be team first—there are no exceptions for that,” Judge said.
“I'm not going to tolerate, put up with any kind of selfish behavior from anybody, coach or player. It's not going to happen.”
Judge also insisted that he’s not going to put any player or coach on trial in the court of public opinion, which is why he insists on keeping the details of how he deals with any infractions that go again the culture he’s created inside the building.
“When it comes to discipline, I don't believe in holding a trial on any of my players or coaches that matter in the public eye,” Judge said.
"While that may be inconvenient, I choose to deal with things internally because, as the head coach, it's my job to protect the team. It's my job to make sure that we can handle things internally, that we have a family structure in this building, that everyone understands our consequences for our actions.”
