Playing 'Invisible Football' As A Kid Spurred Golden Tate To Develop His Signature Shiftiness
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK - Thanks in large part to his signature stop-and-go moves, Detroit Lions wide receiver Golden Tate turned in a career season in 2014, making 99 catches for 1,331 yards in his first year with the Lions.
Tate said the development of the shiftiness that has allowed him to thrive started when he was a kid playing a version of the game that makes him laugh to think back about it.
"I had a bunch of friends that we would play invisible football sometimes - invisible football, where you just have the ball, get tackled and keep going," Tate said Wednesday after Detroit's OTA practice.
"I've always been one that didn't want to be tackled, and I hate the sideline," Tate continued. "I had older friends, and one of them was huge - he was like four years older than me, and then he was also a solid 75 pounds heavier than me, so I'd have to out-quick him. I couldn't let him sit on me or tackle me, so I just grew up [and] I had older friends, so I think that's how I got better because I was always more advanced than the guys my age."
At 5-foot-10 and less than 200 pounds, Tate would be hard-pressed to overpower many defenders, but starting with those informal games with friends, Tate learned early to use his quickness, and it has certainly served him well.
Many do not expect Tate to replicate his 2014 numbers in the upcoming season - last year was the first time he passed the 1,000-yard mark - but Tate is not too concerned about it.
"To me, if we win one more game than we did last year, that's more important than individual stats," Tate said. "I'd rather have 50 catches with 500 yards and a Super Bowl ring."
Tate said he did not do much differently this offseason to prepare for the year than he has in previous ones, but he believes he is in better condition now physically.
"I kind of got beat up last year a little bit," Tate said. "If you look back at my last really two years, I went to the Super Bowl, so that was a whole month and a half longer than the regular season, and then we had a new coaching staff here, so I had to come in a few weeks early, so I wasn't quite healthy, but this year I feel healthy, I feel stronger, and I'm excited."
