Oh.... he didn't want to cause a circus....
You had a star CB who the whole world knows a Super Bowl hero crying his eyes out during the national anthem. You have the player covering for him saying he just found out right before the national anthem that he was starting. You have a former player saying the locker room was divided on instagram and you have current (a defensive star at that) and former players liking that post. All anybody is talking about in the media is that Butler was benched and nobody knows why. You have the media hounding the team and getting weird evasive answers. You have players deflecting and looking pissed off. And this is going to follow Belichick around the rest of his career.
Some job avoiding a circus. Way to punish the whole team to make a point to one player.