If you’re waiting on Bill Belichick to reveal why exactly he chose to embarrass his starting CB Malcolm Butler on the biggest stage in sports, you’d better go on ahead and get real comfortable. Odds are, he’ll never speak publicly on it unless he writes another book or something.
For his part, Butler says he thinks he knows why Belichick decided to do him dirty like that. I’m not buying the reasoning, but let us know what you think:
Via, PFT:
“I never got a reason,” Butler said. “I feel like this was the reason: I got kind of sick. I went to the hospital. They probably thought I was kind of late on the game plan; I wasn’t as locked in as I should be and could have been a matchup deal. It could have been anything. But Bill Belichick has been doing this for a very long time. He took a veteran out of Super Bowl XLIX [against the Seahawks] and put in a first-year rookie, and that turned out right, so you could never question his decision. It didn’t work out right. It didn’t work out the best for me or him or the New England Patriots. But I can say he won more than he lost, so it is what it is. I always have love for New England, Bill Belichick, Mr. Kraft, all those guys. Life just goes on.”
For one, the fact that Butler was never given an explicit explanation as to why he wasn’t playing says all I need to know. This isn’t something a coach would normally make a player guess…if he respected him that is. Butler doesn’t see the field during the SUPER BOWL, & Belichick doesn’t even offer up so much as a hiccup explaining why? It just doesn’t make sense.
Butler signed a five-year, $61 million contract with the Titans so yes indeed, life is moving on for him.
