Re: Butler. Even an unnamed DB said "he knows why he wasn't playing". This is likely in relation to the story about him arriving to practice and telling a defensive coach, possibly Steve Belichick, to "shut the F up" when the coach jokingly said "bout time you showed up". I actually question if he even had the flu. I wonder if he wasn't in the gameplan as much, saw that, and then pouted at home instead, essentially quitting on the team. Seems kinda odd no one else had it but him. I think by him showing up late, being sort of flakey and having a couple of questionable post season games, it just spiraled. He got torched by overrated one trick pony Corey Davis, for example.
When I had the flu 2 years ago in the first time in my life, I took some stuff that made me crap everything out in like 48 hours. How he arrived on gameplan installation day (Wed) after staying back in Boston, I have no idea. Regardless, when he cried because he was told he wasn't in the starting lineup, I am sure they thought he was unstable and couldn;t be trusted. I know I would feel that way. The whole thing was strange almost like he had some kind of a breakdown after rejecting 8 mil per year before the season started. He strangely hired a high school buddy to negotiate the deal and then hired a real agent, but it was too late.
I don't get why BB needs to be accountable for an adult's actions.