Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

mosi said:

Yeah, I think you are right. Here is another possible scenario. Butler missed the trip out not because of an illness but because of something else. He did miss curfew and he did get caught with weed. BB was going to bench him but did not want the Eagles to know. So, he used Butler as a way to gain a competitive advantage. If he made him inactive, the Eagles could have had 90 minutes to plan. Instead, he sprung it on them and on Butler. He did not even tell the rest of the team before hand, to make sure nothing leaked. I assume BB thought this would work out better and the change in defense would have caught the Eagles by surprise but instead, they relished the change.

Click to expand...

mosi said:

BB took a gamble and he lost. No harm in that. BB is always trying to gain even that little inch and that is why it was handled the way it was.

Click to expand...

QuantumMechanic said:

Look at the difference in Goff and Keenum with Fisher vs. with competent coaches. Brady is the greatest, but if he had ended up with a team with an idiot head coach his career path would have been radically different. And likely a lot worse.

Click to expand...

upstater1 said:

How did his replacements contribute? They sucked. I am Bademosi was biting on peewee football stuff. Ridiculous.

Click to expand...

Guarantee you Butler would have been better. Mayo thinks the same, but you know more.

Click to expand...

supafly said:

I agree about the lousy gameplan etc, but it’s freaking Bill Belichick that we’re discussing, here. Even if he made a costly mistake to lose a big game by sticking to his guns, shouldn’t we be appreciative of the fact that he’s a human being who may have messed up and made a poor choice? Yes, it sucks but it happens. He may have made a bad call. He’s done it before and he’ll likely do it again.

The dude is clearly the greatest coach of all time who has helped to make 13-3 seasons a regular thing around these parts. He’s helped lead us to 12 conference championship appearances in like, 18 years. Should we really continue to bash him and try and run him out of town? He obviously thought that Bademosi and Rowe would play better, and a lot of other factors went into us losing. Yes, the loss stings but I’m moving on from blaming him 100%. Lots of stuff happened that contributed, namely 3 touchdowns that could’ve been overturned but went their way.

Click to expand...

JarOfMayo51 said:

I need another release...



Disciplining a player for a minor team violation by benching him for the SB..... man o man.. The Cowboys ran into a similar problem and the coach in the locker room said "you broke the rules and we'll need to deal with that, but we'll deal with it after the super bowl"

There is audio and video of it. That is how a reasonable coach would handle things unless the violation was a serious offense


If this was for a minor team rule violation, then it was absurdly idiotic to bench him the entire game. He could have fined him or something after the fact.. it's obvious that it was a shock to not only Butler, but the entire defensive secondary as well

That is not a tone/mood you want to set for your team 30 minutes before they march out in front of 100 million people to play in a super bowl.

I love me some BB, but if there was nothing physically limiting Butler from contributing in that game then he was a damn fool for benching him and that is the type of thing that could get your players to turn on you... it destroys moral and is devastating...

Sometimes being the cold as ice disciplinarian can back fire on you, and this is a perfect example of that.

I could seriously move on from this SB loss with relative ease if it weren't for this ****ing fiasco.. its just really tough to swallow when your defense was playing like ****ING TRASH ALL GAME LONG! your 2nd best CB who has Superbowl experience is riding the bench and they're putting in SCRUBS like Jordan Richards who have running backs running wheel routes for 30+ yards! WHAT THE ****!!!!


So incredibly frustrating... one of the only times I've been genuinely angry at Belichick and questioned his judgement... I hope the truth comes out as to exactly what transpired... if Butler didn't do anything egregious then it's total bull**** that he was benched.. he absolutely could have been the difference in that game, with 1 batted ball on a 3rd down that forced Philly to punt rather than score ANOTHER ****ING TOUCHDOWN!




AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Click to expand...

robertweathers said:

Cool your jets, pal. No one is saying that.

Belichick drafted Brady. Call it pure luck or solid scouting. The decision was his. He made it. He gets credit.

The decision was also his to carry him as a 4th QB and let him develop and learn the pro game for a year. He gets credit for that too.

The decision was also his to make him the QB2 behind Drew. He would have made him QB1 but Drew's experience held him back. He gets credit for recognizing what he had in Tom.

When Drew got hurt, the team reported Brady was put in the game based on Drew's performance. Again, good decision by BB.

You can be sure TB12 earned everything he got but he also had a coach who provided and environment to foster his development.

To not acknowledge that is ignorant and blind.



I'm talking about the offensive system they run. Their game plans. If you want to argue "Brady was the system" that is fine. Hes the greatest QB of all time. But to not acknowledge BB/Weis/Josh/BOB taking the system they had and ensuring TB12's strengths were taken advantage of is short sighted and and again, blind.

Tom could have easily wound up with a ****head like Jeff Fisher or Mike Martz but he didn't.

It was a perfect storm for Bill and a perfect storm for Tom.

Click to expand...

betterthanthealternative said:

After a few days, my hunch is it was a combination of not playing consistently through the year, and then not practicing much or well during the weeks leading up to the game, which in the minds of the coaches led to an increased probability of getting poor play out of him in the SB. And yes, some stubbornness about "you don't practice well, you don't play" principle they have. We are all stubborn about certain things; I'm not going to ask our coaching staff to be the only humans on the planet not to have that quality.

But, we'll never know what actually happened, despite all the certainty being expressed here.

Click to expand...

patsfan13 said:

Try to get your facts straight the late **** Rheban was the one who pushed for Brady in the sixth round.

Click to expand...

VJCPatriot said:

I gotta agree with you here. BB deciding to be a hardass on the day of the Superbowl really cost us. Issuing a fine to Butler later would have been a much better compromise than deliberately taking away a defensive asset who might have helped us win the most important game of the year.

This is what the Greeks call Hubris - to BB it was my way or the highway but he got burned for his foolishness. And we'll never know if the story could have ended another way for sure, but I have a feeling it could have gone a lot differently since Richards and Bademosi gave up a combined 14/17 passing receptions against them. Absolutely idiotic in hindsight. And makes even less sense on the day of the game. Why would you demoralize your entire defense -just before kickoff- and take out one of their leaders when everybody was preparing like Butler was going to play?

BB's a genius, but his ego got the best of him on Superbowl Sunday. And there's no guarantee we are getting back to the Superbowl next year. That is the sad part. It is not easy at all to get back to the Big Game. I hope that BB didn't just cost Brady his last shot at ring #6.

Click to expand...

robertweathers said:

Dont be a prick.

**** Rehbein didn't pound the table for Brady like everyone says he did. He scouted Brady. Graded him well. Bobby Grier called Lloyd Carr and did more pre-draft work on him. BB made the pick.

Thats how the draft process works.

If you want to come at me with an attitude, get your f-ing facts straight.

Click to expand...

DarrylS said:

Almost 2900 posts later and there is scant evidence that if Butler played the outcome would have been different, I know I am in the minority, but thought Malcolm had a bad year for the Pats and was often out of position and confused in his role. He was not a difference maker on the Defense this year..

He may have made a difference, but no one really knows.. my hope for Butler is that he finds a competent agent, not someone aunt Tilly knows, and navigate the waters of free agency with a favorable outcome...

What is not talked about is how well Foles played in that game, pinpoint accuracy in pretty good coverage.. some of the completions were as good as any I have ever witnessed in a SB..

The Eagles outplayed the Patriots and this is what happened..

Click to expand...

patsfan13 said:

Try to educate your self:

O'Connor: Meet Tom Brady's first believer

Click to expand...

supafly said:

I agree about the lousy gameplan etc, but it’s freaking Bill Belichick that we’re discussing, here. Even if he made a costly mistake to lose a big game by sticking to his guns, shouldn’t we be appreciative of the fact that he’s a human being who may have messed up and made a poor choice? Yes, it sucks but it happens. He may have made a bad call. He’s done it before and he’ll likely do it again.

The dude is clearly the greatest coach of all time who has helped to make 13-3 seasons a regular thing around these parts. He’s helped lead us to 12 conference championship appearances in like, 18 years. Should we really continue to bash him and try and run him out of town? He obviously thought that Bademosi and Rowe would play better, and a lot of other factors went into us losing. Yes, the loss stings but I’m moving on from blaming him 100%. Lots of stuff happened that contributed, namely 3 touchdowns that could’ve been overturned but went their way.

Click to expand...

AndyJohnson said:

No. Butler wasn’t ready to play and contribute. Which part of that do you not get?


What you care about is irrelevant. Go get hired as hc of NEP if you want your opinion to matter.


They were worse week 1 with butler on the field being lit up and then benched. Surprise the chiefs and eagles run the same offense.

Click to expand...

SalemPats said:

Are you just arguing to try and be funny. We all appreciate BB, but he had an awful day of coaching on Sunday. Probably cost us the SB, not his finest moment

Click to expand...

supafly said:

The last 10 points happened within the last 5 min or so. While I agree with you that they didn’t stop them, the choice to put Gilmore on Jeffrey was certainly helping, as was the fact that they were limiting their possessions.

As you said, the backbreaker was the long drive that saw Philly take the lead late in the game. The question is how much Butler may have helped due to what they were doing.

Click to expand...

QuantumMechanic said:

Look at the difference in Goff and Keenum with Fisher vs. with competent coaches. Brady is the greatest, but if he had ended up with a team with an idiot head coach his career path would have been radically different. And likely a lot worse.

Click to expand...