Several seasons ago, the Seattle Seahawks became the Super Bowl champions for the first time in team history.
However, the trophy didn’t come without some serious fight from the players to get to that big win. It involved a literal fight or altercation between Golden Tate and Percy Harvin ahead of the big game.
In a Seahawks Super Bowl team photo, fans were able to see Golden Tate’s black eye. Now, years later, more details about what went down between the two players have come out.
Seahawks’ incident: Harvin talks about losing it on Tate
Seattle’s lone Super Bowl win came in February of 2014 when they defeated the Denver Broncos, 48-3. Back then, Golden Tate was one of the team’s star receivers.
Percy Harvin was also on the roster, but was injured and only participated in one game that season. He was ready to go for the Super Bowl, though. However, comments from Tate ahead of the big game irritated Harvin.
Master Tesfatsion of B/R Gridiron recently spoke to Harvin on Untold Stories Episode 3 (video below). He mentioned that his years with Seattle were among “the worst of his life” due to his anxiety disorder.
Harvin mentioned how his anxiety affected him when he had to talk, or at press conferences, as he noticed he was sweating a lot. Harvin also said he didn’t correctly acknowledge his issue and handle it. He claims his worst time was “the Super Bowl incident.”
Untold Stories Episode 3 with Percy Harvin
Percy Harvin shares how he smoked weed before every game to help with his anxiety disorder/migraines.
Plus, he opens up about fighting Golden Tate before Super Bowl 48.pic.twitter.com/8xnaY9qOCZ
— Master (@MasterTes) October 2, 2019
Tate said during a press conference ahead of the big game, “We made it here without him [Harvin], so whether he play or don’t play, you know, we, we gonna be good.”
Harvin said later on in the meeting room he asked Tate about his comment, but he was so “wrapped up” that it would not have matter how Tate responded. “I was already at 10,” Harvin told B/R.
When asked if he punched Tate into a laundry hamper, Harvin said, “Let’s just say we, we got, we…locked up” and that owners had to come into the locker room to handle things. He also added, “hitting him into the trash can and all that stuff, it was true.”
Harvin also said the whole situation was bad “because it was team pictures that day, and you see, can see ‘tense’ in the picture.” He admitted to giving Tate a black eye five minutes before the team’s photo ahead of the Super Bowl.
Golden Tate’s black eye on display in Seahawks’ team photo
Several photos have surfaced showing the Seattle Seahawks as a team posing together before and after their Super Bowl victory over the Broncos. The image below is the before the Super Bowl team photo. Golden Tate is in the center of the picture wearing his No. 81 Seahawks jersey.
Golden Tate former Seahawks star in team photo for Super Bowl win. #Seahawks #SuperBowl #NFL pic.twitter.com/w93yfx8QUK
— Pigskin Glory (@PigskinGlory) October 3, 2019
In a 2014 photo tweet from after the Super Bowl win, check out Golden Tate’s left eye. The Twitter user who posted it questioned whether it was a black eye that Tate had, and it appears that’s the case there.
@THE_ELPRESADOR Here's a pic of Golden Tate's black eye after Percy Harvin punched him during Superbowl week. pic.twitter.com/Hxqn99rn67
— #2 (@ya_boy_hollywud) October 17, 2014
The good news was that after that incident where Harvin gave his teammate Golden Tate a black eye, another teammate came through to play peacemaker.
Harvin said that “Beast Mode” Marshawn Lynch helped them get on the same page ahead of the big game. They’d win it with a major blowout that also included Percy Harvin scoring on an 87-yard kick-return touchdown.
Harvin, who stopped playing in the NFL after 2016, also took full responsibility for what happened due to him not handling his anxiety.
He mentioned to B/R in their talk, “I never really had done this before, but you know to finally tell Dougie and uh, Golden, that them situations, they were on your boy, 100 percent.”