Giants hold Golden Tate out of practice after public venting of frustrations

After expressing frustration with his role on camera during Monday’s game and seeing his wife take to Instagram to say he was “so underutilized,” wide receiver Golden Tate was held out of a walk-through practice on Wednesday by the New York Giants.

“I spoke to Golden at length today. We’re dealing internally with a lot of things. We have a walkthrough today. He’s not going to be at the walkthrough today, but he will be back in the building and practicing with us the remainder of the week. It will be business as usual,” said coch Joe Judge. “We’re going to deal with this internally, and that’s all I’m really going to say about that.

Judge did not specify that Tate was facing discipline. He did make clear that he won’t accept anything that does not appear to represent a team-first mentality.

“It has to be team first for everyone in this building. Every coach and every player has to be team first. There’s no exceptions for that,” Judge said. “I’m not going to tolerate and put up with any kind of selfish behavior from anybody, coach or player, it’s not going to happen.”

As he did when players were photographed out at dinner maskless a couple of weeks ago, Judge said the situation will be dealt with internally. He said he would not put any players “on blast” in the media.

“When it comes to discipline, I don’t believe in holding trial on any onne of my players — or my coaches for that matter — in the public eye,” Judge said. “I choose to deal with things internally because as a head coach it’s my job to protect the team. It’s my job to make sure we can handle things internally. That we have a family structure in this building. That everyone understands there are consequences for our actions. At the same time, I’ve got to be the one that can take bullets for the team and I’m fine with that. I’ve got to make sure I do the right things by all the players and the coaches.”

Tate, 32, has only 22 catches on 29 targets in eight games and is averaging 3.1 receptions per game, all numbers that would put him on pace for his lowest totals since the 2013 season. His snaps played have also diminished over the past four weeks to roughly around 50 percent of the offensive plays.

On Tuesday, Judge had been asked about Tate role.

“His role is the same as every player on our team. Show up to work, work hard, put the team first and when you have the ball come your way, to make a play on it,” Judge said. “If you’re not involved with the ball directly at you, to block, help the quarterback. For defensive players, to make sure we play our leverage, tackle, and get the team off the field.

“Look, put the team first in whatever you’re asked to do. If you catch 10 balls, great. If you catch one ball, that’s great, too. On the other plays within the game, do everything you can to help the team. That’s everybody’s role.”

Tate had been the subject of trade rumors, but the NFL trade deadline passed on Tuesday with him remaining a member of the Giants.