Golden Tate is returning to the scene of the crime.
In more ways than one.
The former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver makes his first return to the city where he received his NFL start when he and the Detroit Lions arrive Monday night to face the Seahawks at CenturyLink Field.
Tate played his first four NFL seasons in Seattle, and during his time with the Seahawks he was not only a valuable piece of Seattle’s offense, he also found himself at the center of controversy both on and off the field. So his homecoming is a highly anticipated one.
“I watch him on film and I kind of miss him a little bit,” Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas said. “He was a part of a lot of success we had early on.”
Tate was a productive player for the Seahawks. Selected in the second round of the 2010 draft out of Notre Dame, he finished with 165 catches for 2,195 yards and 15 touchdowns during his four seasons in Seattle, leading the team in receptions (64) and receiving yardage (898) during the team’s Super Bowl-winning season in 2013.
Those are numbers the Seahawks remember fondly.
“He was an all-around athlete,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said when asked his favorite thing about Tate. “He was so natural at catching and making moves and playing the game. It came easy to him in that regard. He had to grow through some of that because he was such a natural athlete, he had to work hard at his stuff, which he did.”
Tate’s time in Seattle also was punctuated by moments of controversy. The highest-profile of those was the infamous “Fail Mary” catch against the Green Bay Packers in 2012, when on the final play of the game he first shoved down Packers cornerback Sam Shields, then wrestled for the ball with Green Bay safety M.D. Jennings and was eventually awarded a controversial touchdown as the Seahawks stole a 14-12 victory. It’s the moment that ended the NFL’s lockout of its referees.
Tate also had a notorious off-field incident his rookie season in 2010 when he was issued a warning for trespassing after wandering into a Top Pot location in Bellevue at 3 a.m. and helping himself to some doughnuts.
Add in the Super Bowl ring he won with the Seahawks and it’s safe to say Tate built a history in Seattle, and it’s likely he’ll be extra excited to play his former team Monday night.
“I think guys who have been around, who have played in this league for a period of time, a lot of guys are transient, a lot of guys go from place to place,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. “That’s kind of the way the league is. I think it’s just like coaches who coach against their old teams, you still have some relationships there, particularly if you spent a length of time there. It’s always going to be emotional, but it’s just a matter of making certain you keep it in check.”
The Seahawks wanted to keep Tate following the 2014 Super Bowl win, but Tate proved too expensive for Seattle’s wallet as he signed a five-year, $31 million deal with the Lions.
“We tried to keep him and we just couldn’t get there, where he wanted to go,” Carroll said. “He was a good guy on our team, we liked the heck out of him. He was one of my favorite guys out there. We tried, but we couldn’t get it done.”
Tate justified the money in his first season in Detroit, grabbing a team-hit 99 passes for 1,331 yards and being named to the Pro Bowl.
“He’s just a guy with great catch-and-run ability, a guy that makes something out of nothing quite a few times,” Lions quarterback Matt Stafford said. “He did it last week, had a big play for us on a play that looked to be a negative play. At the same time just an energy guy, he plays hard on Sundays. Last year he was forced into a No. 1 role for us when we lost Calvin (Johnson) for about half the year, so he did a great job in that regard as well.”
Tate found himself embroiled in more controversy this week. On a Tuesday radio interview he claimed the Lions were too predictable on offense.
“I’ve had a couple occasions in literally each game, where they called out our play for one, and then afterwards been like, ‘Hey, we knew what you guys were doing,’” Tate said on 105.1 FM in Detroit. “I don’t know how they know or which film they’re watching that we’re giving away, and that’s something we need to go back and watch our tendencies to figure out where we line up or how we line up or what formation — whatever it may be, we’ve got to figure it out because we’re clearly giving (the play) away.”
The next day Tate clarified that his comments weren’t a shot at Lions offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, but in the aftermath Tate was not made available to the Seattle media to talk about his return to the city where he spent his first four seasons.
So while Tate may no longer be in Seattle, it seems the spotlight followed him to Detroit. And the Seahawks hope that spotlight doesn’t result in another controversial game-winning touchdown Monday.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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