Five years ago the man with one of the most famous plays in Super Bowl history was tearfully rebranded with the most infamous benching in the biggest game in all of sports with all the world watching.
Malcolm Butler, who became a household name with his game-saving interception against the Seahawks three years earlier in Super Bowl XLIX, spent Feb. 4, 2018 crying his eyes out on the Patriots sideline while New England lost a 41-33 shootout with big Nick Foles’ Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, a loss that left many in Patriot Nation shedding shared tears of their own.
Butler was a former Pro Bowl cornerback who’d played 98-percent of the snaps for the Patriots defense that 2017 season, including every snap two weeks earlier in the AFC Championship win over the Jaguars.
Yet on that fateful, regrettable Sunday he was left to stand by and helplessly watch as Foles diced up the New England defense to the tune of 373 yards passing and three touchdowns (and one sickeningly “Special” TD catch!), Philly scoring on eight of its 10 possessions in the inglorious game.
Five years later little clarity has been brought to the mystery of Butler’s Super Bowl benching in his final game in a New England uniform. Rumors ran hot and rampant in the immediacy of the loss, salacious speculation as to what could have pushed Bill Belichick to what ultimately may have been such an historically costly decision.
As Tom Brady famously pondered while throwing for a record 505 yards and four touchdowns in his own right, what defense were the Patriots in that left Butler on the Super Bowl sideline? A Super Bowl-losing defense, apparently.
This week Butler – who actually re-signed with the Patriots last summer, coming out of a one-year retirement only to land on injured reserve during the preseason – was back at the Super Bowl making the rounds at radio row. Why? Well, apparently he has a book and documentary coming out at some point. No better place to muster up some promotional chatter than the most grand, over-the-top media event on the sporting calendar.
Finally Butler is ready to spill the beans, share his side of the tale that has gone untold for a half-decade. A documentary. A book.
Malcolm, go! Tell all!
Except, even while half-heartedly promoting a documentary and a book, Butler seems to indicate there isn’t a lot to tell. Appearing on The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio he served up the worst book-tour teaser in marketing history.
“Oh, man. I usually don’t talk about it man,” Butler said of his Super Bowl LII benching. “There’s a documentary coming out. It will tell you more about it. But it was just a coaching decision. Like I always say, just a coaching decision.”
That’s it? Coaching decision! Nothing to do with sex, lies or rock n’ roll, so to speak, as the rumor mill feverishly pondered once upon a time? Those are all false rumors?
“Yeah, I think so. I’m not…I’m a disciplined guy, man. I ain’t perfect, but I would not like go to no concert, I wouldn’t do certain things that people say,” Butler said. “It had to be…somebody gotta say something that was done but nobody say anything.”
Well that’s making this five-year mystery, one filled more with rumors and speculation than actual answers, even more difficult to process.
Butler admitted that looking back on his big game benching has been tough to process, though he also notes that his short return to New England last summer has to be worth some consideration in the grand scheme of speculative things.
“It really didn’t bother me until probably like two years ago…well, I’ll tell you this year. You know I told you there is a documentary coming out and things like that. That’s when it really touched me, when I really had to open up and just talk about it man,” Butler told CBS. “Yeah, it bothered me a little bit. I knew it was coming to the end during that game, before that game. Yeah, it is what it is. You know, I ain’t got nothing but respect for Bill Belichick. If I did so much wrong like the media said, I wouldn’t be allowed to come back to New England.”
And that’s where the rubber meets the rumor road regarding Butler’s benching. If he’d done something so heinous, so personal, so unforgivable to deserve a last-minute benching that shocked teammates and fans alike…then how would he be welcomed back with $500,000 in guaranteed money five years later?
Could Butler’s Super Bowl benching really have been simply a “coaching decision?”
If that’s indeed what the cornerback is going to reveal to us and sell to Patriots fans everywhere who’ve been waiting for an answer for so long, that’s the most disappointing possible ending to this entire Super Bowl soap opera. As disappointing as the loss itself, one that prevented New England from winning three-straight Super Bowls.
It also will go down as most definitely the worst “coaching decision” Belichick ever made. A decision seemingly without merit that cost himself, his team and his owner another Super Bowl ring.
We may be getting closer to an answer that’s been five years in the making regarding the most infamous, frustrating, costly benching in Super Bowl history. Unfortunately, the supposed truth isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Sometimes knowing is even more infuriating than not knowing.
You want the truth about Malcolm Butler’s benching in Super Bowl LII?
Careful what you wish for, because you may not be able to handle the truth.