Last year, New York Giants receiver Golden Tate famously expressed frustration in an outburst captured on Monday Night Football in a losing effort against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Tate's outburst, which also included him seeking out the camera to make his case for more pass targets and his wife's social media outburst afterward, landed him in hot water with head coach Joe Judge, who viewed the veteran receiver's actions as "me first" rather than "team first."
Tate ended up paying the price as Judge not only demoted him to scout team in practice the next week, the receiver was also deactivated before the team left for a road trip to Washington.
So what makes Giants receiver Kenny Golladay's emotional sideline outburst last week against Washington, which, unfortunately for the Giants, was captured by the television cameras, any different than Tate's emotionally driven outburst?
"To me, speaking out emotion and fighting are two different things," said Judge, who wasn't directly asked about the incident with Tate last year and who instead focused on the Golladay incident.
Judge shared that sometimes he himself is guilty of launching into emotionally charged verbal outbursts brought on by the heat of the moment and that things can and do get said that aren't meant to be a personal attack.
"Sometimes we have support staff out there, you know people that help us and wee gotta kind of tell them on the front end, 'Look, whatever I say today, don't take personally. In the heat of the moment, things happen."
Judge added that if there were an issue with Golladay or any player, it would be handled. "Like I said, the other day, when there's someone that has to be disciplined, I'll discipline them. We're very transparent with our team. If there was an issue, it would be handled."
Judge also emphasized that he has no problems with Golladay.
"I love the way Kenny competes," he said. "The one thing I really love about this guy he's got a lot of fire. He wants to go out there and be successful.
"The conversation the other day wasn't anything in terms of an attack on a coach or a player. Simply put, (it was) 'Hey, I can do this. Give me a chance.'"
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