Golden Tate was told to sit out of Wednesday’s practice after both he and his wife, Elise Tate, ranted about his playing time, according to a report from Yahoo Sports . New York Giants head coach Joe Judge held the wide receiver out of practice and informed the media that the two are discussing how to effectively handle the situation.
In the team’s Monday Night Football matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Golden expressed his frustration about the number of times he has been targeted this season. So far, he has only been targeted 29 times in the seven games the Giants have played. Compared to the previous year’s stats of 85 targets, the second-year Giant has not been utilized as often, as reported by Sports Illustrated .
After the 32-year-old caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Daniel Jones, he ran over to one of the cameras and screamed.
“Throw me the ball!” he yelled a couple of times as his teammates celebrated around him.
Tensions were elevated after Elise took to her Instagram story and expressed her anger over her husband’s playing time with her 55,000 followers, according to a report from the New York Post . She wrote in all-capital letters that Golden needs to be fed the ball more often.
“Period. Watch the film. He always comes down with the ball,” she added.
“I can’t watch such a playmaker be under utilized,” she also wrote.
Shortly afterward, she deleted all the posts.
Some NFL analysts speculated that he was trying to force the club to trade him, as his frustrations have been accumulating for weeks due to his diminished role on offense.
The coach was confronted by the media about the situation. He admitted that he did not even realize the outburst had occurred on the field, but after it was pointed out to him, he immediately spoke to the wideout.
“We’re going to deal with this internally,” was the only thing the head coach told reporters after being asked if Golden missing practice was due to disciplinary reasons.
He also added that the coaching staff has spent a lot of time explaining the importance of a positive social media presence to the players. He pointed out that everything players post reflects on the New York Giants organization as a whole.
This is Golden’s second controversy he has been involved in this season. Earlier in the year, he was suspended for four games after getting into a postgame fight with Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The two have had bad blood for a while, which stems from the fact that Jalen is the father of Golden’s two nieces.