On Sunday, Lions wide receiver Golden Tate played love doctor while on the turf.
Tate and fiancée Elise Pollard hosted military veteran Nik Schieder and longtime girlfriend Sheena Lader in a Ford Field suite for the Lions' afternoon tilt against the Jaguars. Tate and Pollard knew the surprise was coming, but as far as Lader knew, she was getting a good deal as part of NFL's Salute to Service month.
"It was my first football game, ever. I've always been watching football but I've actually made it to a game," Schieder says, per For the Win. "So it was fantastic to be at a game and then to be in a suite. And then to meet Elise, she's such a fantastic individual. So I was nervous for so many different reasons, so I think that kind of helps to sell the surprise. I think it's a week I won’t soon forget."
During the first quarter, the couple was brought down to the same field tunnel the Lions run out of before the game. Pollard kept making small talk. For Lader, it seemed like part of the Salute to Service experience.
Then Schieder got down on one knee.
"And it went off without a hitch," Pollard says. "It was just perfect … she had no idea, she thought the cameras were going to come on him and he was going to wave and the announcers were going to talk about his service and little did she know that he got down on one knee."
Tate, who had three catches for 27 yards in a 26-19 win, saw the replay at halftime.
"You could definitely see the emotion on the screen, you could see Sheena how excited she was and how happy she was so that was really cool," he says. "… It was super cool to be part of that and give back the way we did."
Had Lader analyzed Tate and Pollard's track record, she could have seen this coming. Schieder's proposal is the third such time Tate's foundation has worked with diamond company Ritani to help a veteran pop the question.
Schieder enlisted in the Army in 2001 and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan five times. He was honorably discharged with a Purple Heart in 2012.
And on this game day, he gave his heart to his now-fiancée.
-- Follow Jeff Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband. Like Jeff Eisenband on Facebook.
