I am loathe to agree with Skip Bayless, but I have to get this rant off my chest.
Bill Belichick cost us the Super Bowl with his lame, stupid, petty, ridiculous benching of Malcolm Butler. There are two other "coaching decisions" in BB's tenure that I thought he was dead wrong on that cost us games - not going for a make-able indoor FG in the 2007 SB with a young Gost as kicker who he didn't trust, and going for it on 4th and 2 in Indy up by 5 and in our own territory (where Faulk actually made the 1st down, but we got a terrible spot and Peyton Manning shortly took the ball the other way and scored a TD). This one is by far the worst decision, because he had about 40 chances to correct it and never did.
Did Malcolm screw up and piss you off? Yep, sounds like he did, but for God's sake use your head coach instead of your friggin ego. Throw him off the team plane on the way home! Ban him from the victory party! Announce in front of everyone that he'd better clear out his locker the second you get back to Foxboro! Tell him and his agent there is no amount of a discount that would let you sign him again, and leak all his immature antics to the press to make sure he doesn't get big money elsewhere. These are just some of the ways you could have punished Malcolm Butler, and Malcolm Butler ALONE for what he did.
Instead you intentionally (yes, intentionally - how can it be anything else if you didn't put him in for the 2nd half?) LOST THE SUPER BOWL and screwed your ENTIRE TEAM and your 40 year old QB who gave the Super Bowl performance of his career just to prove your point, whatever that was. And then you have the audacity to tell all of us, including your SCREWED PLAYERS that you were doing the best thing for your team, packages, and all that CRAP. Then you make your one statement, go on vacation, and leave your SCREWED PLAYERS to repeat to the press IN BILL WE TRUST, even though none of them believe it. Did you see their faces on the sideline during the game? You really screwed this up. You are lucky I am not Bob Kraft because I would have considered firing YOU and banning YOU from the team plane on the way home.
I can't tell you how maddening it was to be at the game and see completion after completion on 3rd & long to Butler's side of the field. It was shocking how bad our defense was. I assumed Butler was injured or sick and that's way Eric "Revolving Door" Rowe was playing in his place. I couldn't believe the reports after the game that Malcolm Butler was intentionally benched, apparently right before the game. ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME?! YOU ARE AN IDIOT. Not only did that give Philly a choice spot to pick on for the entire game, it screwed with the rest of the defense's heads. Philly was giddy. You could see it in their faces on the Jumbotron after all of those huge 3rd down conversions. Now we know why - the greatest coach ever left his brain at home and sacrificed the good of his team to show that nobody gets to piss off the teacher. Wow. No wonder Brady couldn't shake anyone's hand and Gronk is considering retirement. I am sure they are both thinking, what the hell am I doing here? We play all year to get to and win the Super Bowl and coach throws it all away on us as we are running out of the tunnel. AND sticks to it when he sees how bad the D is playing without Butler. Moronic $h!+ that usually happens to other coaches in the Super Bowl, not BB.
Flame away. I know BB is a great coach and he usually makes great, calculated decisions. But this Super Bowl loss is 100% on him.
