New York Giants Receiver Golden Tate Returns to Work
Giants wide receiver Golden Tate, who last week suffered the wrath of head coach Joe Judge, was back with the team on Monday during their weekly postgame corrections practice.
“He was back in there with us today working,” Judge confirmed. “We’re not going to have the players in the building tomorrow, but they’ll be able to come in to work out. Then Wednesday we’ll be on the field for practice, so he’ll definitely be out there practicing with us.”
Tate ran afoul of the head coach last week during the team’s Week 8 Monday night loss to the Bucs.
The veteran receiver, who had been rumored to be on the trading block, expressed his frustration over his reduced usage in the Giants offense by twice screaming, “Throw me the ball!” into the television camera.
Around the same time, Tate’s wife went on a social media rant in a since-deleted Instagram story that corroborated her husband’s apparent frustration over his usage in the Giants' offense.
Judge, who has made it crystal clear that he won’t tolerate any “me first” attitudes from anyone in the building, met with Tate on Wednesday but apparently didn’t hear what he wanted to from Tate, whom he sent home for the day.
Tate returned to the facility and practiced with the team Thursday and Friday, but as a scout team member instead of the first-team offense.
Judge’s final act in driving his point home to Tate, as well as the rest of the team, came when the Giants announced before leaving for Washington on Saturday that Tate would not be making the trip.
With Tate having served his penalty, Judge seems willing to leave the past behind and move forward as the team begins to prepare for the Philadelphia Eagles, whom, if they beat this weekend, will leave the Giants tied for first place in the NFC East with their rivals.
“Like all of our players, we’re going to have plans for these guys within the game plan,” Judge said. “If you’re asking me specifically about him being active for the game, I would anticipate Golden being active. I have no reason to believe he wouldn’t be active at this point.
“But,” he added, “we’re going to go through this week and kind of see how everything goes with everybody on the team and see where everything plays out.”
