When Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate was first asked whether or not he pushed off Green Bay Packers cornerback Sam Shields during the final play of last Monday night’s game, he responded with a quick, “I don’t know what you’re talking about” statement. Now, it appears Tate is willing to admit that maybe he was wrong about what happened–but that doesn’t mean he’s not defending himself for what happened.

Tate was willing to admit that what the replay showed was true, and the evidence was clear that he did push Shields off. He claims that he’s not a cheater–but he had no intention of cheating. Tate claims that he was caught up in the moment, and pushing Shields to the ground was simply just a reaction from trying to catch the pass from Russell Wilson–not intentional.

Obviously, it’s easy for Tate to make a case like this now when the Seahawks have already been rewarded with the win from the game and there’s no way of changing it back. No matter how many times you view the replay, it was clear that M.D. Jennings had the football in his possession instead of Tate, and the wideout knew all along he shoved Shields to catch the ball–he just wasn’t willing to admit it earlier in the week.

With the original refs back for Week 4, let’s hope the Tate “catch” was the last of ridiculous calls that were as bad as Monday night’s game, so the NFL doesn’t have to see players like Tate failing to take responsibility of actions they know were wrong.