Golden Tate is steaming mad at Lions fans, but I’m not sure he has much of a gripe.
More than 60,000 fans attended the Lions’ home loss to the Cardinals on Sunday, yet according to The Detroit News, no more than 1,000 fans remained during the fourth quarter.
After a 42-17 loss to the Cardinals’, Lions wide receiver Golden Tate went on a graphic rant about the lack of fan support during the game.
“You know, I’m the first one to say I love our fans. I think our fans are amazing and they’ve been patient for a long time,” Tate said, via The Detroit News. “Before the game started, I looked up, there were a lot of empty seats. Early on in the game, our team is getting booed. Later in the game, it sounded like the loudest they got was when (quarterback Matthew) Stafford was leaving the game and Dan (Orlovsky) was coming in. And that’s not the support that we want.
“When we win, we all win together — the city, as an organization, as a state. When we lose, we all lose together. And today, I felt like, at times, our fan base kind of turned their back on us.”
It was a mess all the way around with fans leaving, the Cardinals calling out Detroit plays and Matthew Stafford getting benched.
Still, Tate urged fans to stick with them, and wants them to be “better next week.”
“We have a lot of confidence in our fan base and we can’t do that without our fan base,” Tate said. “We expect them to be with us a little bit better next week. We’ve got a chance to still be special. I know that we’re not playing the type of football that we want to play right now, but we need our fans. We need them.”
“I consider us family,” Tate. “I think there’s gonna be times where family goes through trials and tribulations. There’s gonna be times where we don’t agree with each other as far as family, but at the end of the day, we’ve still gotta find a way to come together. It’s how I see it.
“I don’t see our fan base as just Lions fans. I consider us family and what I mean by that, it’s more than football to me. It’s being out in the community trying to bring this city together, helping whoever I can who’s down.
“Right now, we’re just done. But we need the continuous support from our family, at the end of the day.”
Things are getting ugly in Detroit.