When former Notre Dame receiver Golden Tate met with the Steelers, he didn’t really think he was on their radar screen. Once Santonio Holmes was traded, Tate suddenly picked up a different vibe.
"[N]ow that Holmes is gone, I’m seeing it’s a possibility,” Tate told Troy Clardy of 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh on Sunday. “I’m anxious to see which direction they take. . . . It would be an ideal situation. I’ll be going into a great situation because I would be learning from a guy that I like to model my game after, Hines Ward. I don’t think it could get any better than that. I’m going to have the chance to help the team but also learn the game more from a veteran. In my eyes, this would be an ideal situation, and I could definitely see myself going there and wearing black and gold.”
But can he stay out of trouble, a subject about which Steeler Nation suddenly is acutely concerned?
“Being at Notre Dame, you’re used to being under the microscope, so I’m used to having all eyes on me,” Tate said. “Anything I do, anywhere I go. My mother and my father taught me what’s right and what’s wrong, so I don’t think I have a problem making any tough decisions.”
Um, that last line could make things a little awkward in the locker room, since it implies that certain parents of certain players who wear a certain single-digit number certainly failed when it came to teaching the right-wrong lesson.