Golden Tate blasts Jim Schwartz

ByMichael Rothstein ESPN logo
Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Lions wide receiver Golden Tate is annoyed after learning that the Bills' carrying of Jim Schwartz off the field Sunday was a planned move at the request of the former Detroit head coach.

The Bills carried Schwartz off the field Sunday after they beat the Lions 17-14, and after the game, his players said the now-Buffalo defensive coordinator asked them to do it before the season started.

"It's a terrible gesture. Just being a spectator, that's not the first time that he's done some things like that," Tate said Tuesday on 105.1 FM in Detroit. "One thing that I heard, I don't know how true it is, I heard that it was planned.

"Like do this if we win. That's a total douche move."

Buffalo players said after the game that Schwartz told them beating his former team would mean a lot to him. Schwartz coached five seasons in Detroit, taking the Lions to the playoffs in 2011 -- the team's only playoff appearance this century.

The Lions fired Schwartz in December and replaced him with Jim Caldwell in January.

Tate said the gesture is something that won't go unnoticed by himself and other players and that it is possible the teams -- or at least Schwartz and some players -- will see each other down the road.

Tate said the Schwartz carry-off wasn't discussed too much in the locker room after the game or in the past two days, but that they hopefully feel good about "the Rudy moment" that Buffalo had.

Tate knows all about the Rudy story, as he went to Notre Dame. Had he been able to take action without fines, he might have done something about it, too.

"I thought it was so disrespectful. So disrespectful. I didn't like it at all," Tate said on 105.1. "If I knew I wasn't going to get fined, I would have snatched him right down off their shoulders and threw him on the ground, personally. But obviously I couldn't do that.

"But if that's what they feel was the right thing to do, then so be it. But I just thought it was a bit disrespectful to come on someone's home field because you have a past with them and kind of do that. So it is what it is and hopefully he feels better for doing it."

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