RENTON -- Golden Tate talked about the fine he received for his block on Dallas linebacker Sean Lee.

"I'm sure the commissioner went long and hard thinking about it," Tate said. "And he thought that's what was right. So I've just got to deal with it, fix the problem, make sure it doesn't happen again. It's unfortunate I got fined, but rules are rules."

Was he surprised he was fined?

"A little bit," Tate said. "That night I looked over the hit several times, talked to some other people that had knowledge over the game. I had mixed views. Some thought it was legal, some thought it was illegal. Like I said, it was a tough decision."

So what could he do differently?

"When I do my appeal, I'm going to ask them that: 'What would you suggest I do to make sure that this doesn't happen again?' Because I never have intentions on injuring a player, and I always want to play within the rules. That's a question that's going to come up when I have my appeal."

And rest assured, Tate isn't going to shy away from throwing a block if a similar situation comes up. He just won't throw the block in that way.

"I'm going to hit him," Tate said. "I'm going to block him. Make sure he can't make the tackle next time instead of what I did."

Coach Pete Carroll said the issue -- according to the league -- was that Tate made contact with Lee's head.

"It was a great effort by Golden to make the block that he needs to make," Carroll said. "But unfortunately, they saw it as there was a little contact to the bottom of the facemask and perhaps his chin and that's not OK."

Specifically, a player should not make the helmet part of the hit.

"We're becoming more of a shoulder tackle league," Carroll said. "So that's just what you have to do."