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Golden Tate Admits He Pass Interfered

Right after Seahawks receiver Golden Tate left the field monday night, swept up in the sea of mass confusion and euphoria and bad refereeing that had engulfed CenturyLink Field, ESPN’s Lisa Salters asked him if he had pushed off on the play that sparked 1,000 memes.

His response was incredulous and priceless.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Cut Tate some slack: he had just played a football game, and hadn’t yet had time to see the play that we had all watched five or six times at that point. Plus: what is he supposed to say? His team had just been giftwrapped a 14-12 win over the Packers.

Still, the replay evidence showed that Tate pushed off. And he was pretty blatant about it.

And now that Golden Tate has had time to actually see the play that caused so much outrage, he… kind of agrees with everyone else.

“The evidence shows on the film,” Tate said. “But I never had intentions on cheating. I wasn’t trying to cheat. I was competing, it was in the moment. Things are happening so quick. I honestly didn’t even notice I did. I didn’t try to hurt him or push him down to the ground, but it happened. It was just a reaction kind of thing. …

“As far as pushing the defender, I was caught up in the moment, playing football. At that point, it was just like backyard football — find a way to get the ball. I didn’t intentionally try to shove him to the ground.”

So, while this probably won’t make Packers fans feel much better, it should probably be enough to get them to stop bothering poor Golden Tate on Twitter. Unlike Pete Carrol, who refuses to admit anything weird happened and who you should go bother on Twitter right now.

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