It’s been three years to the day that Malcolm Butler ensured the Patriots would be victors in Super Bowl XLIX when he picked off Russell Wilson at the goal line with 20 seconds to play.
With the pick, Butler became a hero in New England lore as the Patriots came away with their fourth Lombardi Trophy in franchise history, and first in 10 years.
But before Butler's iconic interception, it looked as if the Patriots were about to lose yet another Super Bowl in the final seconds after Jermaine Kearse made an acrobatic catch down the sideline to put the Seahawks inside the 10-yard line.
Seattle tight end Luke Willson, a guest on Barstool Sports’ Evening Yak show Wednesday night, and recounted the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX from the perspective of the Seahawks on the field and off it.
“Kearse makes the great, unbelievable catch. I’m jogging back to the huddle like, ‘Wow, that’s the David Tyree catch right there,’ and I’m like ‘What a win, let’s finish this off. Let’s go,’” he told host Dan Katz.
Willson, who notes he is usually pretty focused in those moments, allowed himself to get sentimental in the huddle and thought the game was over.
He thought head coach Pete Carroll would call a zone read on second down, a play that Willson says the Seahawks ran a million times on the goal line that season, but instead it was a pass.
“Then we called a pass and I’m like, ‘Oh [expletive>, I’m going to grab the game-winning Super Bowl touchdown. Let’s go!” Willson said.
He was on the zone side of the play, hoping New England would run a zone so he would be a target, but the Patriots were in man coverage. Then the ball was snapped.
“I had a corner on the back side so I didn’t see it but I heard everybody yelling, and as weird as it sounds, I could hear guys celebrating that weren’t my teammates,” Willson said. “I turned around and it was probably the worst moment of my life.”
Things got even worse when Willson and the Seahawks returned to the locker room, as he notes he sat at his locker crying while other teammates were angrier than sad, including one teammate who came in and broke his hand on a locker.
“People were demanding answers from coaches, in the moment. What sucked was there were no answers … What’re you going say?” Willson asked. “I don’t want this to come off like I’m mad at our coaching staff, because I see what they saw. Would I have done it? No. But I see, there is logic, believe it or not. Hindsight is 20/20, but there is some logic behind what they were doing.