ALLEN PARK -- Golden Tate was on his morning drive to the Lions facility when he pulled up behind one of his fears: a little girl crying in the back seat of a wrecked car.

Tate just had a daughter born in January, and so he stopped his own car and did what fathers do: He pulled her into his arms and held her while she cried.

It was around 8:15 Tuesday morning, two days after Tate dazzled in a road game in Dallas. It was a practice off day for the Lions, but Tate was headed to the facility anyway. He stopped when he realized nobody else was after two cars had engaged in the rear-end crash on Southfield Freeway near Seven Mile Road.

He spotted a mother on her phone outside of a smoking car and a little girl in the back seat, so he went right to the source of the pain.

"I didn't even ask. I just picked her up," Tate said Wednesday. "I probably should have asked. I guess I did what I would have done if London was in that situation."

London is Tate's eight-month-old daughter and the first child of his and his wife, Elise's. Her birth was a long-awaited source of pride after all the times Tate held the babies of his teammates and longed for the day when he'd have one of his own.

And so he stood by the road as the cars zipped past and cradled a 3-year-old daughter of someone he didn't know. She wasn't in much physical pain. She just kept asking for her brother. He didn't have many details to give her, but he told her everything would be all right.

DetroitLions.com reporter Tim Twentyman stopped by to check and see if Tate was involved. Tate told him he just wanted to stick around until help arrived. And he did so for 45 minutes. Tate said none of the people involved in the crash knew who he was, but when it was time to leave, the officer who arrived on the scene gave him congratulations for the game he just played.

That came in Dallas, when Tate turned eight receptions into 132 yards and two touchdowns, including a go-ahead score with two minutes to go, only for the Cowboys to come back and win. It was the best game he's played yet this season.

But his best deed came Tuesday morning on the side of a busy highway. It had him cradling a young girl in his arms, like he does his own daughter at the end of a long day, remembering that some weeks you lose a game and gain some perspective along the way.