Wide receiver Golden Tate would be willing to take less money to stay with the Seattle Seahawks.
An impending unrestricted free agent, Tate told 950 KJR in Seattle that he would open to a hometown discount to facilitate the Super Bowl champions re-signing him.
“I probably shouldn’t even say this right now, but I’m going to say it anyway just because I love Seattle, honestly, I would rather take a little less to be happy and win ballgames than to take way more and go to a crappy city where the fans don’t give a crap about the team,” Tate said. “You win a game once a month of something like that. I would much rather stay in the situation that I have now for a little less than to go and try to break the bank somewhere else.”
That doesn’t mean that Tate would accept a contract well below market value out of loyalty to the Seahawks.
“At the same time, I don’t want to be disrespected by any means,” Tate said. “I want to be able to take care of myself and my family for the rest of my life at the same time. We’ll see. That’s what I have my agent for. I plan to have some conversations with Pete (Carroll) and the GM (John Schneider) and hopefully we can work something out.”
Tate capped one of the best seasons of his career with the Super Bowl victory. During the regular season, he caught 64 passes for 989 yards and five touchdowns and added 585 yards on 51 punt returns. He ranked second in the NFL with 7.9 yards after the catch.