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Golden Tate may be long retired from football, but he recently returned to the national consciousness via his recent thoughts on an alleged past fling.
Back in early 2014, the wide receiver was on top of the world, having just won Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seattle Seahawks. But two months later, he was with the Detroit Lions, allegedly because quarterback Russell Wilson had caught him getting intimate with his then-wife Ashton.
But speaking on his ex-teammate KJ Wright's podcast recently, he dispelled all those rumors:
“There was a rumor out there that I was not coming back to the Seahawks because Ashton, Russell’s wife at the time, had an affair with me which was completely not true. In fact, my wife now (Elise Tate) and Ashton were best friends and still are really good friends. In fact, Ashton came to our wedding."
And when the rumors started spreading, he felt as if Wilson had betrayed him:
“Russell and I had had conversations about his future in regards to that. So when I heard that, I was like that’s kinda creative and kinda funny but it picked up stream, and I feel like I was never defended properly. It kind of made me angry because now, everyone’s just coming at me completely sideways and I’m not being defended. It was a whole big situation and I just felt like a scapegoat in a way. I was bitter for years, y’all. Years."
Golden Tate recalls how a Hail Mary formed one of the greatest moments in the NFL
Throughout the 2010s, Golden Tate established himself as one of the most capable wide receivers in the NFL. Besides winning the aforementioned Super Bowl, he also reached a Pro Bowl in his first year as a Detroit Lion. He ended his football career in 2022 with eight straight seasons of at least 600 receiving yards (2012-2019), including three 1,000-yard campaigns in Detroit (2014, 2016, and 2017).
However, many football fans will remember him more for the "Fail Mary" - a highly controversial game-winning touchdown catch against the Green Bay Packers in Week 3 that occurred in the midst of an officials' strike (substitutes were used for that game, and their mishandling of the "Fail Mary" led to an early end to said strike). In the same podcast, he recalled the moment:
"I'm on the back side. Russell rolls out to the three-man side, and we are the shortest receivers on the field, probably at that time. So it's not supposed to go to us. And then he throws it back across the field to us.
"(Green Bay cornerback) Sam Shields is in the way...I jumped, and it's in my hands. I think it might've been in someone else's hands in the air as we peaked, but as we came down, I got my hands on it. And I just kept my hands on that ball just as much as anyone else did, to the point where I don't know what's happening."
In hindsight, that was the moment when Tate broke out and through, according to him:
"And I hear our fans scream. I'm like, 'They called it a TD, and that's the game,' and honestly, that night my life completely changed. Now I feel like I'll forever be remembered in the NFL."
