Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

Satchboogie3 · Feb 5, 2018

Regardless of what happened regarding Butler, BB is absolutely lying if he says not playing him at all was in the best interest of the team. I get not starting him, but when you watch Rowe get beat 3rd after 3rd down and defense can't make any plays... You swallow your damn pride. I don't care if he was sick still, you literally couldn't get worse than what Rowe and Bademosi were giving you. A corpse would have been an upgrade. BB is 100% to blame for this loss. Just unforgivable. All you needed was 1 stop, just 1. Your telling me Butler couldn't have made 1 play?

Brady's 40. Risking a Superbowl to make a point might have been defensible a decade ago, but this is the end run, there may not be may more opportunities... Hell, Butler could have punched BB in the face for all I care. Not playing him is just not fair to every other person in that organization and fan base.

Chris Stevenson · Feb 5, 2018

bormio said:
Maybe he had some bad practices because he had the flu. But people do recover.

do you really believe bb would have benched him like that because he got sick? i am sorry, i am not buying that and i think bb is trying to protect butler by saying it had nothing to do with “disciplinary” reasons. it was very obviously disciplinary, but i do think butler’s role was truly going to be minimal, which ticked him off as a pending free agent.

another big super bowl would have boosted his stock. the crying is concerning for a 28 year old adult who is rumored to have done some pretty selfish and dumb things, if he in fact did not have the flu at all.

Deus Irae · Feb 5, 2018

Satchboogie3 said:
Regardless of what happened regarding Butler, BB is absolutely lying if he says not playing him at all was in the best interest of the team.

Maybe he was worried that the NCAA would take away the win if Butler played.

Chris Stevenson · Feb 5, 2018

Satchboogie3 said:
Regardless of what happened regarding Butler, BB is absolutely lying if he says not playing him at all was in the best interest of the team. I get not starting him, but when you watch Rowe get beat 3rd after 3rd down and defense can't make any plays... You swallow your damn pride. I don't care if he was sick still, you literally couldn't get worse than what Rowe and Bademosi were giving you. A corpse would have been an upgrade. BB is 100% to blame for this loss. Just unforgivable. All you needed was 1 stop, just 1. Your telling me Butler couldn't have made 1 play?

Brady's 40. Risking a Superbowl to make a point might have been defensible a decade ago, but this is the end run, there may not be may more opportunities...

i just wish he properly assigned rowe help over the top, like i said all week

cmasspatsfan · Feb 5, 2018

Addictive said:
What I haven't seen answered is why was Butler even active?

Sure, 1 ST snap for the punt team.

If BB's decision was really about giving the Patriots the best chance to win then he would have included Harris or Branch who would have likely had more impact than Butler who was on the sidelines all night.

I think it reveals so much about BB's personality and ego. Sure he is the all time greatest coach but as a person, he is less than desirable.

Leaving it until the anthems to tell Butler he wasn't playing is callous and unprofessional.

For a player who was on the field for nearly 98% of the defensive snaps it is staggering watching a much less talented and far less experienced CB (Rowe) take Butler's place in the starting line up as well as having Richards and Badesmosi who are ST players take snaps instead of Butler. It's sickening and it is the reason we lost.

There was a ripple effect because for a team that had so many injuries you can't just sit Butler, it meant for less effective players took meaningful snaps and allowed the Eagles so many more chances to score point.

Butler in the slot would have slowed down Nelson and Torrey Smith and he would have tackled better.

If I'm Brady I'm furious with all the coaches.

Apparently he did or said something after the inactive list was submitted or he would have been on it.

Chris Stevenson · Feb 5, 2018

cmasspatsfan said:
Apparently he did or said something after the inactive list was submitted or he would have been on it.

That is possible, too. Maybe they had 2 gameplans and one of them involved him less and that is when the blowup happened?

fumbrunner · Feb 5, 2018

Chris Stevenson said:
i just wish he properly assigned rowe help over the top, like i said all week

No eagle WR is worthy of a double team like that. We aren't talking about Julio Jones here. Gilmore against the taller Jeffrey, Butler on agholor, and chung on Ertz was the way to go. That would have forced them to go through Torrey Smith. Good luck with that.

Not to mention we had zero pressure all game. And you wanted to put a dedicated safety over the top to protect against an average WR? Man, that's a worse gameplan than the one BB/pratricia drew up.

Satchboogie3 · Feb 5, 2018

Chris Stevenson said:
do you really believe bb would have benched him like that because he got sick? i am sorry, i am not buying that and i think bb is trying to protect butler by saying it had nothing to do with “disciplinary” reasons. it was very obviously disciplinary, but i do think butler’s role was truly going to be minimal, which ticked him off as a pending free agent.

another big super bowl would have boosted his stock. the crying is concerning for a 28 year old adult who is rumored to have done some pretty selfish and dumb things, if he in fact did not have the flu at all.

Even if it was disciplinary and Butler did something really really bad, and he had really bad practices, AND was sick... The way it unfolded with everyone on the team outside the captains finding out right before kickoff... That's just a terrible way to start a Superbowl. You want players calm and comfortable. How the f*ck is adding all this drama and taking the #1/2 corner, whom the rest of the defense is used to being out there all game, helping the team.

And then to watch the defense and secondary literally have one of the all-time worst performances I have ever seen from a Patriots team... you still don't put him out there? I'm sorry, but there's no excusing Bill here. I mean, if BB is that stubborn that he'd rather piss away a Superbowl... Thanks for previous 5, but you're a f*cking idiot.

Boomer B · Feb 5, 2018

Chris Stevenson said:
probably a
combination of things..i am
no anti-weed guy but between blowing up at coaches, blowing vape pens in your
room during curfew check while missing curfews, entire meetings and flights with a drunken state at times, is not a good look for him.

if you can’t trust the guy and he goes off the rails where he is not practicing within the gameplan, what is bb supposed to do? butler has been freelancing all year, while showing up teammates at the end of the play.

And how do you know all this info you typed to be true? Your post is a joke. We do not know he blew up at his coaches. We do not know he was “blowing vape pens in his room during curfew check”. We have no clue that he missed entire meetings, curfews, and flights. He went “off the rails” and was not practicing within the game plan? Only thing that went off the rails is your posting.

Ring 6 · Feb 5, 2018

Kdo5 said:
Drug use. It's marijuana.

You see nothing wrong with a player (allegedly) smoking weed at the team hotel at the SB?

Didn't Chandler Jones play after being high and wandering about half naked in public?

Wasn’t a league banned substance and wasn’t at the Sb.

He must not have been that ill because he suited up wearing a helmet and being out there on at least one ST play.

I could see being sick enough to play in a pinch but still not able to play as well as normal but we are guessing.

Matchups? He has played 97% of the snaps this season. Last night? 0%.

Rowe was our for a lot of the season. The matchups created a game plan where we played big nickel and big dime so we only used 2 corners. Rowe being a better matchup in that scheme against this team isn’t precluded by other games. If the scheme were nickel rather than big nickel the 3rd corner may have gotten 60 snaps but those went to a safety in this game.
I don’t think this is all of it thigh.

There is no real evidence of attitude issues from Butler. Even a mixture of all of the above is not good reason to hold him out even a snap.

Why would there be evidence?

What is your explanation?

SVN · Feb 5, 2018

Details about Malcolm Butler situation starting to emerge

obgod3 · Feb 5, 2018

Something about this smells. No matter what butler did or didn’t do he was on the sideline while the guys playing where getitng torched. Butler would have been a huge upgrade to Rowe, think about that missed tackle on 4th down late in the game, butler gets that tackle.

it was a bad decision on BB’s part and it definitely chips away at my personal thoughts about his greatness. A colossal F-up...

The whole thing, Butler out, Gronk talking about not knowing what he is doing, Brady saying “we will see”, Josh not committing to Indy, and BB making the stupidest call I ever saw....feels like 96 all over again when Parcels didnt fly home with the team. Did BB lose this on purpose......

bormio · Feb 5, 2018

Look, Butler has a history of issues well before NE, but had seemed to clean up his act. Maybe he did, maybe not. But something weird is going on, we just saw the greatest player in the history of the NFL get nailed in an ESPN piece with a steaming pile of innuendo. Now that writer did not invent that story out of whole cloth - it was fed to him. So when it comes to rumors about players - color me skeptical.

chumpchange · Feb 5, 2018

I swear, the more I read, the worse it feels. As soon as the Eagles saw Butler was out, they switched their game plan to go after Rowe (as any coach would do). All Bill would have had to do was put Malcolm back in after the half...

"While the choice to bench Butler left Patriots fans scratching their heads, it also had a similar impact on the Eagles’ coaching staff. Butler had been one of New England’s best defensive players over the past three seasons. Philadelphia undoubtedly had game planned around attacking, or staying away from Butler, and one of their assistant coaches admitted they were shocked he wasn’t on the field.

“After the first series or two,” one assistant told TheMMQB about when they realized Butler wasn’t in the game. “‘We were like, ‘This guy’s not in the game! They have 23 (Patrick Chung) in there. That’s crazy!'” With Butler out of the game, Chung found himself with the difficult task of guarding Nelson Agholor in the slot, while Eric Rowe was outmatched on the outside against either Alshon Jeffery or Torrey Smith. “To go after 25 (Rowe),” the assistant said of the Eagles’ game plan with Butler out. “We could get Alshon (Jeffery) out there against him. We had Rowe on our team here in Philly, we knew that was a mismatch.”

Read more at: Eagles Assistant Coach Reacts To Patriots’ ‘Crazy’ Malcolm Butler Benching

Boomer B · Feb 5, 2018

Chris Stevenson said:
yes, he apologized, was contrite, didn’t miss meetings, flights or blow up at coaches.

see the difference?

And you have no confirmation Butler missed a flight, a meeting, and blew up at his coaches.

You should probably sit the next few plays out. Your posts are laughable.

SVN · Feb 5, 2018

If BB didnt want to put butler in so be it. thats fine. Why make him active ? couldve used branch or someone else. Cant say on one hand its all gameplan specific and all night they couldnt find one play can play on and on the other hand cite discipline issues when making him active.

KDPPatsfan85 · Feb 5, 2018

Satchboogie3 · Feb 5, 2018

Boomer B said:
And how do you know all this info you typed to be true? Your post is a joke. We do not know he blew up at his coaches. We do not know he was “blowing vape pens in his room during curfew check”. We have no clue that he missed entire meetings, curfews, and flights. He went “off the rails” and was not practicing within the game plan? Only thing that went off the rails is your posting.

He literally could have been the biggest POS leading up to the Superbowl, done everything short of murdering someone, but with Rowe sucking it up, you have to put him in. Tell him "You're a POS, your done here... but I want to win this f*cking game, so go out there and make a f*cking stop". He's just standing there... I'm watching the absolute worst defensive performance ever... and BB still just has him standing on the sidelines. It's the Superbowl. You give it everything you have. He didn't. BB is lying if he says everything he did was in the best interest of the team. B*llshit. You probably win if you play Butler.

chumpchange · Feb 5, 2018

obgod3 said:
Something about this smells. No matter what butler did or didn’t do he was on the sideline while the guys playing where getitng torched. Butler would have been a huge upgrade to Rowe, think about that missed tackle on 4th down late in the game, butler gets that tackle.

it was a bad decision on BB’s part and it definitely chips away at my personal thoughts about his greatness. A colossal F-up...

The whole thing, Butler out, Gronk talking about not knowing what he is doing, Brady saying “we will see”, Josh not committing to Indy, and BB making the stupidest call I ever saw....feels like 96 all over again when Parcels didnt fly home with the team. Did BB lose this on purpose......

Agreed. Why else would the greatest mind in coaching do this? The Eagles' coaches are now laughing over the "crazy" decision to bench Butler and bragging about how they simply changed their game plan to attack Rowe once they saw Butler was out. Bill gave this victory to Philadelphia. If we're all this upset about this, imagine how Kraft, Tom, Gronk, and all the other players feel.

Deus Irae · Feb 5, 2018

How anyone can be pro-Butler, anti-Belichick on this to me is mystifying. Clearly he violated a rule at the worst possible time. How is that Belichick’s fault?

Source: Benching Butler not a discipline issue. Belichick made the call a few hours before game. Many coaches and players were shocked. Some players and coaches “furious” with Belichick, this is a move that divided the locker room.

Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

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