Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

[Tunescribe]

The two people that would know the most are Butler and the coaching staff and they both said it was strictly a football coaching decision. Nobody on the team has said anything like that.

Howe, Giarardi, Butler and everyone else were following up based off a post by that unverified account. So basically you are believing an unverified account over anybody credible.

I think the problem here is making good sense of the benching being purely a "football" decision. Perhaps that needs to be considered in broader terms encompassing aspects of the player's behavior.

 

[IcyPatriot]

In practice leading up to the Super Bowl Butler was not part of the packages they chose.

All the rest is rumors and gossip ... someday maybe we find out why he didn't get more action in the 2nd half.

 

[aluminum seats]

umm, i don’t think that is true. he blew up at coaches and missed curfews and meetings. fairly certain this was all corroborated.

butler and his ego don’t need excuses

the kid turned down 7 mil per

he got welker’d

I heard he turned into a hippopotamus and then he flew in a spaceship to Jupiter and was late coming back so he shot lasers out of his eyes at Belichick and then smoked weed. It was in the news and someone said it.

 

[Deus Irae]

I think the problem here is making good sense of the benching being purely a "football" decision. Perhaps that needs to be considered in broader terms encompassing aspects of the player's behavior.

The problem here is people believing a rumor spread by some random nobody. The solution to a lack of information is not fabricated or unverified information, after all. And that applies to all of life, not just sports.

 

[Deus Irae]

The problem here is people believing a rumor spread by some random nobody. The solution to a lack of information is not fabricated or unverified information, after all. And that applies to all of life, not just sports.

I just want to make sure people understand that I'm not calling out Tune on this, at all. NESN should not have run that story.

 

[HailHydra]

old news

 

[Tunescribe]

The problem here is people believing a rumor spread by some random nobody. The solution to a lack of information is not fabricated or unverified information, after all. And that applies to all of life, not just sports.

I'm not necessarily believing the rumor, I'm just open to the possibility there was something more involved in Butler's benching than a cut-and-dried "football decision." BB calling it "a football decision" could mean other things outside of it being disciplinary or schematic/strategic. Or maybe it was disciplinary and he just didn't want to say so.

I think this comes down to whether (A) BB had an unavoidably compelling reason to bench Butler, (B) he had a personal axe to grind against the player, or (C) he made an uncharacteristically awful coaching gaffe believing it would help the team win. All three are possible, but I'm in the "A" camp and believe therein lies the answer.

 

[lancerman]

The problem here is people believing a rumor spread by some random nobody. The solution to a lack of information is not fabricated or unverified information, after all. And that applies to all of life, not just sports.

This. It's one thing to say it being a football decision makes no sense. It's another thing to run with a bs story that was never verified and treat it as fact because you didn't find the given answer good enough. Butler basically won us a Super Bowl. He deserves better than having his name dragged through the mud off a pie in the sky story. If we are going to treat it with credibility, we should have something more solid to to go on than some guy nobodies ever heard of on twitter saying it.

People get mad at the Mort 11 out of 12 balls tweet, but then in the same breath want to run with something that somebody nobodies ever heard of before tweeted. It's just not right.

 

[Love The Drake]

This. It's one thing to say it being a football decision makes no sense. It's another thing to run with a bs story that was never verified and treat it as fact because you didn't find the given answer good enough. Butler basically won us a Super Bowl. He deserves better than having his name dragged through the mud off a pie in the sky story. If we are going to treat it with credibility, we should have something more solid to to go on than some guy nobodies ever heard of on twitter saying it.

People get mad at the Mort 11 out of 12 balls tweet, but then in the same breath want to run with something that somebody nobodies ever heard of before tweeted. It's just not right.

Sure but this actually makes sense.
Out of respect for what Butler did for this organization and not to ruin trust of players and affect free agents wanting to come here.
We won't criticize Butler before he looks for his biggest contract of his career.
Belichick is old school if it was Brady we would of saw Hoyer out their and had backup vs backup.

 

[Deus Irae]

This. It's one thing to say it being a football decision makes no sense. It's another thing to run with a bs story that was never verified and treat it as fact because you didn't find the given answer good enough. Butler basically won us a Super Bowl. He deserves better than having his name dragged through the mud off a pie in the sky story. If we are going to treat it with credibility, we should have something more solid to to go on than some guy nobodies ever heard of on twitter saying it.

People get mad at the Mort 11 out of 12 balls tweet, but then in the same breath want to run with something that somebody nobodies ever heard of before tweeted. It's just not right.

As a people, we know that today's media gets stories wrong at an alarming rate, slants stories at an even more alarming rate, and does little to no actual work for damn near anything it puts out as a "story" now, yet we willingly play Charlie Brown to the media's Lucy every time we see a new story.

 

[lancerman]

As a people, we know that today's media gets stories wrong at an alarming rate, slants stories at an even more alarming rate, and does little to no actual work for damn near anything it puts out as a "story" now, yet we willingly play Charlie Brown to the media's Lucy every time we see a new story.

I mean literally a week ago we all just watched the fake Borges story happen, everyone on all the morning sports talk shows discuss it like it was a legitimate thing, and then barely acknowledge it the next week.

People need to be better. Especially when it's someone reputation.

 

[rochrist]

The two people that would know the most are Butler and the coaching staff and they both said it was strictly a football coaching decision. Nobody on the team has said anything like that.

Howe, Giarardi, Butler and everyone else were following up based off a post by that unverified account. So basically you are believing an unverified account over anybody credible.

I think everyone involved has plenty of motivation to not be forthcoming if it /was/ something like the rumors suggest.

 

[Tunescribe]

I mean literally a week ago we all just watched the fake Borges story happen, everyone on all the morning sports talk shows discuss it like it was a legitimate thing, and then barely acknowledge it the next week.

People need to be better. Especially when it's someone reputation.

Hold on a second. Your gripe is with NESN, I don't see anyone here in this forum taking the story at face value. For the record, I posted the link because it references two former Patriots chiming in on the ongoing mystery that was Butler's benching. The story (their conjecture) lacks credibility for not being verified/confirmed/corroborated. For that reason alone, Deus reasonably suggests it never should have been published. But if one were to make the leap that it IS true (which hasn't been proven or disproven), it would explain everything.

Even assuming the rumor's originator was out to simply make mischief or smear Butler, it makes sense to entertain the possibility that SOMETHING untoward involving Malcolm MIGHT have occurred. Considering the very peculiar circumstances of his benching with no clear explanation, that's a plausible consideration.

 

[Deus Irae]

I think everyone involved has plenty of motivation to not be forthcoming if it /was/ something like the rumors suggest.

Yeah, because Belichick's usually so open about his decisions. It's not as if we have a mantra of "just doing what's best for the team" that we joke about, or anything like that.

 

[Deus Irae]

Hold on a second. Your gripe is with NESN, I don't see anyone here in this forum taking the story at face value. For the record, I posted the link because it references two former Patriots chiming in on the ongoing mystery that was Butler's benching. The story lacks credibility for not being verified/confirmed/corroborated. For that reason alone, Deus reasonably suggests it never should have been published. But if one were to make the leap that it IS true (which hasn't been proven or disproven), it would explain everything.

Even assuming the rumor's originator was out to simply make mischief or smear Butler, it makes sense to entertain the possibility that SOMETHING untoward involving Malcolm MIGHT have occurred. Considering the very peculiar circumstances of his benching with no clear explanation, that's a plausible consideration.

You are feeding into a theory that has no evidence by, first, posting something that should never have been written and, now, using the story's claims as a "plausible consideration". At this point, you're becoming borderline complicit in the besmirching of Butler's reputation without evidence.

Leave that sort of crap to the Felgers and ESPNs of the world.

 

[Betterthanmost]

Ah, the stages of grief. It is a fascinating thing to watch. You must find an acceptable reason to get closure even if the reason has already been revealed to you.

 

[Tunescribe]

You are feeding into a theory that has no evidence by, first, posting something that should never have been written and, now, using the story's claims as a "plausible consideration".

Not being NESN's ombudsman, I have the luxury of finding the willingness of Browner/Stallworth to offer their 2 cents on Butler's benching interesting (however speculative or misled they might appear). My use of "plausible consideration" was not in direct reference to this story specifically, but to the prospect of Butler having personally placed his playing time in jeopardy -- something I'm sure folks wondered about before the NESN piece appeared.

 

[Betterthanmost]

Not being NESN's ombudsman, I have the luxury of finding the willingness of Browner/Stallworth to offer their 2 cents on Butler's benching interesting. My use of "plausible consideration" was not in direct reference to this story specifically, but to the prospect of Butler having personally placed his playing time in jeopardy -- something I'm sure folks wondered about before the NESN piece appeared.

I don't know about Stallworth' take, but I know Browner's stand and it was actually to shoot that the rumors as silly and not the reason. Whoever wrote the article probably did not understand his jargon very well. He went street heavy.

 

[Deus Irae]

Not being NESN's ombudsman, I have the luxury of finding the willingness of Browner/Stallworth to offer their 2 cents on Butler's benching interesting (however speculative or misled they might appear). My use of "plausible consideration" was not in direct reference to this story specifically, but to the prospect of Butler having personally placed his playing time in jeopardy -- something I'm sure folks wondered about before the NESN piece appeared.

If you were listening to someone on the radio who was saying what you're saying, you'd be making posts killing that person for those comments. And, you'd be right to be doing it. If you want to speculate, don't put the color of authority on it by starting with a bad story. That's what you did. At first, I assumed it was a matter of you being duped. Now, it seems you just wanted to have a basis for your commentary, no matter the validity, and you're usually above such nonsense.

So, on that note, I leave the thread for you to take as far into the gutter as you wish, as I think the fan base that had to suffer through deflategate should be above this.

 

[Tunescribe]

If you were listening to someone on the radio who was saying what you're saying, you'd be making posts killing that person for those comments. And, you'd be right to be doing it. If you want to speculate, don't put the color of authority on it by starting with a bad story. That's what you did. At first, I assumed it was a matter of you being duped. Now, it seems you just wanted to have a basis for your commentary, no matter the validity, and you're usually above such nonsense.

So, on that note, I leave the thread for you to take as far into the gutter as you wish, as I think the fan base that had to suffer through deflategate should be above this.

Goodnight Deus. Sweet dreams.