Golden Tate Pulls Off Marriage Proposal During West Coast Trip

By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby

Someone fighting handcuffs nearby isn't normally the romantic backdrop one would hope for during a marriage proposal. But Golden Tate worked with what he had this weekend, when he pulled off a surprise proposal to his girlfriend of four and a half years, Elise Pollard.

While Tate was in San Diego for the Lions' game against the Chargers Sunday, he took Pollard (who is from the area) to the beach for the proposal he had been planning for several months.

"In the meantime, a homeless person was getting arrested for some reason, and fighting the cuffs," Tate said.

But a few steps later, Tate moved past that less-than-perfect omen and dropped to one knee.

"I wasn't nervous that she was going to say no," Tate said. "But when you get down on that knee, you have so much you want to say, and how you're going to say it, and how you want to get it out, but once you get on that knee, I just kind of blacked out. I saw her emotion; I was emotional. I just kind of rambled and eventually got the question out."

Tate stumbled through trying to get the ring on Pollard's finger, as she jumped to hug him first. But minor snafus aside, Tate pulled it off, and became the second Lions receiver to get engaged this year (Calvin Johnson proposed to his girlfriend in March).

Slipping that ring on Pollard's finger had been a long time coming. According to Tate, Pollard had rejected his advances multiple times before they even started dating.

"As soon as I was drafted in Seattle, I just happened to be out," he said. "This girl – she's very, very outgoing, very, very passionate in everything she does and says. She kind of just stood out so I went and talked to her, and she was cool. I asked her to dance and have a drink and she said no three times, and me, I was like, 'I'm not quitting, I'm not quitting.' I'm confident in my personality. …Then we just kind of became best friends before we were anything else, and next thing you know, here we are."