Dear Bill - Thanks for Giving Away the Super Bowl.

[JayNM]

Im with you Deb.

Missing half the SB would be just as good enough to prove a point.

At some point in the game, BB's decision became a problem. A big one.

No one is taking M Butler off the hook, but should the team, and Brady, be penalized this harshly for this?

 

[Todd Bradley]

This is complete and utter crap. The defense allowed 41 points, Malcolm Butler isn’t Lawrence Taylor, his presence wouldn’t have changed that performance.

Give me a break.

No ones sitting here and saying Malcolm Butler is LT. Don’t bring such a garbage comparison to the table.

The fact of the matter is this, Butler could’ve made the one single solitary stop that Rowe or Bademosi couldn’t. Brady only needed one stop to win that shoot out and he never got it.

End of story. Any other rediculous comparison or narratives you try and bring to the table are irrelevant. You play your best players to win a game, especially a game as big as this.

Belichick screwed the pooch and cost the team a title. Period.

 

[Ring 6]

Except he was Active and played a snap. Don’t move the goal posts to try and fit your narrative.

Not moving any goal post at all. He played 1 st snap. They probably neglected to replace him for that one.

[quoye]Belichick had 60 minutes to analyze the situation and make adjustments by playing his probowl corner. He sat on his hands and his decision was the ultimate factor in winning and losing a title.[/quote]
Butler shouldn’t have gotten himself benched.

You people defending Bill can spin this any way you’d like, the facts remain that this team lost a very winnable game and Malcom Butler could’ve helped decide it.

And that’s on butler.

 

[RobertWeathers]

That’s nonsense.

He was ACTIVE on the field. Belichick could of played him at any freakin point in a sixty minute game where his defense was getting embarrassingly lit up in the Super Bowl of all games.

Telling me that keeping Butler glued to the bench becuase he was late once or had a little weed on him is proving the OPs point that Belichick literally threw the game. Who the hell cares if he was late? Who the hell cares if he had weed on him? These were clearly isolated incidents that could’ve been handled in-house with a small reprimand and nothing more.

You play him and after four quarters, he’s a free agent and you never have to see him again.

To not play him is literally the worst coaching decision, arguably in the history of the Super Bowl and it cost this team a championship.

Malcolm Butler makes at least one stop that Bademosi or Rowe couldn’t.

Tom Brady only needed one stop to win that game. He never got it.

Its not nonsense.

You are unwilling to subscribe there were MULTIPLE egregious enough infractions which put BB in this situation and you refuse to make Malcolm accountable. Malcolm let his teammates down and BB felt he was not in a position to help the team. Period.

 

[Observer]

you prefer to spread the story that belichick benched him for no reason?

Yes, as far as I know, Belichick has said "due to a number of factors" and patricia said "this or that package" which to me means "no particular good reason" unless they come out and clarify.

Edit: look, he may have violated some minor rule but we know the NFL is not full of the brightest bulbs in the world and to manage that is part of BB's job. Its the difference between being a top general and a lowly drill sergeant.

 

[VectorPrime]

This game just cements that Brady should get more credit for the dynasty. Super Bowl 36 was the only one that Belichick deserves the credit. Every other one it was Brady playing out of his mind to win.

 

[Ring 6]

Yes, as far as I know, Belichick has said "due to a number of factors" and patricia said "this or that package" which to me means "no particular good reason" unless they come out and clarify.

They are not going to throw the player under the bus by “clarifying”. This is never, ever done.
If you want to believe belichick just benched a starter on a whim feel free but I live in reality.

 

[Todd Bradley]

Its not nonsense.

You are unwilling to subscribe there were MULTIPLE egregious enough infractions which put BB in this situation and you refuse to make Malcolm accountable. Malcolm let his teammates down and BB felt he was not in a position to help the team. Period.

It is nonsense.

Bill Belichick is the one that let his team down. Stop with the spin, you look absolutely foolish trying to defend him.

He changed a gameplan an hour before kickoff, confused players, divided the locker room and had every opportunity in the world to make amends and fix his poor decision thorougout a sixty minute game. He didnt.

You don’t sit a top corner in the Super Bowl as punishment. You clearly saw the end result of doing such an egotistical move.

You and me can keep dancing on this, but youre not right and never will be.

 

[Big Bucks]

What a complete load of garbage. Complete fantasy.

I have plenty to gain by lying.. tut.

 

[Bradybranch]

I heard on Sirius that Butler was caught trying to sneek weed into the Pats hotel.

Perhaps it all lies, but something very bad had to have happened for BB to go to this extreme. If it winds up being true, I am 100% with BB for his benching.

Why?

 

[Ivan]

Give me a break.

No ones sitting here and saying Malcolm Butler is LT. Don’t bring such a garbage comparison to the table.

The fact of the matter is this, Butler could’ve made the one single solitary stop that Rowe or Bademosi couldn’t. Brady only needed one stop to win that shoot out and he never got it.

End of story. Any other rediculous comparison or narratives you try and bring to the table are irrelevant. You play your best players to win a game, especially a game as big as this.

Belichick screwed the pooch and cost the team a title. Period.

Pretending Malcolm Butler would have made the one stop to change that game is total fantasy. You guys are making sh.t up and acting as though it’s fact. Malcolm Butler played in the opener against KC, how many points did they let up?

 

[patsfan13]

Every single bit of this is on Butler. He was an immature jerk. He played below his potential all season because he was pissed he didn't get traded or get a huge contract. Then when it came to the biggest game of the season he decided he was more important then the team. He put the coaching staff in a no win position. There are team rules, there are consequences if you break them. He broke them, he was punished, end of story.

Go cry somewhere else about BB following rules and benching a player that didn't care, until he got on camera and could cry for national tv. Hopefully he will grow up, probably he won't.

The solution isn't to punish the entire franchise, but to not offer a contract, not to invite him to a ring ceremony, parade ect. Cut all ties after the game.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Hi @PatsDeb :

I respect your opinion and am happy that you are here representing a lot of us female fans of the Patriots. I am of the belief that we should wait and see what happened and what the reason is that Bill decided to sit Butler. I am positive it wasn't performance related. Something happened.

What if the night before, Butler threw a punch at or pushed a coach, is that grounds for sitting him in the game? I'm not saying that happened, but as of now we just don't know. What if he was late to meetings or broke curfew, is that grounds for him sitting? As of now, we don't know all the information.

Just my little two cents.

Very well said and sums up what I think many also think right now. Not enough information. The thing is, this is the NFL and there is a lot of behind-the-scenes drama on every team. To think that Belichick would bench Butler for a benign act is a stretch in speculation.

The other part of this is that the front 6 were absolutely dominated the entire game. The secondary really wasn’t that bad and communicated on almost every play. We knew the Eagles offense had tons of playmakers and that they run a system that is difficult for our defense to defend. This may have been the worst overall pass rush and line of scrimmage play out of a Patriots team in the BB era.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

If this is the case then he should have been inactive.

Maybe, but butler was likely there for emergency purposes. If jonathan jones were not on IR, butler would have joined alan branch at panda express.

 

[sambam94]

If this is true then I wouldn't say I'm 100% with BB, but it's funny how no one is holding Malcolm Butler accountable. If true, he let his team down in the biggest moment.

of course he is accountable..but what good does it do benching a player that could help the team win the freaken Super Bowl?...WHEN THE PLAYER IS NOT RETURNING NEXT YEAR ANYWAY.
The players worked their butts off to get to this game and the coach refuses to put a player in the game after he sees his defense getting destroyed possession after possession..for what? So players NEXT YEAR won't do something similar? It's the last g*** Damn game of the year...WIN IT!!!

 

[Todd Bradley]

Pretending Malcolm Butler would have made the one stop to change that game is total fantasy. You guys are making sh.t up and acting as though it’s fact. Malcolm Butler played in the opener against KC, how many points did they let up?

Malcom Butler is the best tackler on the team and a miles better cover corner than Bademosi and Rowe.

Telling me that having him in there doesn’t improve the chances of winning or improve the chances of making one single defensive stop is pure looney tunes nonsense that literally no one believes.

Stop with the Belichick apologist crap. He was wrong, end of story.

 

[Ivan]

I have plenty to gain by lying.. tut.

My father was a psychiatrist and I and other members of my family have spent years working in mental health fields, none of us have ever seen what you are claiming. The idea that marijuana is a gateway drug has been thoroughly debunked for a long long time, and that’s why it’s now being legalized across the country. What really destroys minds and bodies are pharmaceuticals, that’s why America has an opioid crisis and not a pot crisis.

 

[SacPete1]

I refuse to place blame on one specific decision regarding a player. We may never know the full story so there is no use in speculating.

The defense played poorly, simple as that. Was it scheme, execution, combination? Sure. Too many chunk plays and couldn't make the plays when we needed them and Phili did.

One or two plays go differently, and all the talk is how Phili's defense got lit up like none other and how overrated it was.

I'm not willing to dismiss a 17 year run that has seen unprecedented excellence. We want answers. We want to reconcile how this could happen. Bill makes mistakes. Players miss assignments or lose technique.

This will pass and the team will look different next year and regardless of the media questions and speculation, you give me Bill Belichick and Tom Brady and there is no team with a better chance of going to the Super Bowl.

 

[Ivan]

Malcom Butler is the best tackler on the team and a miles better cover corner than Bademosi and Rowe.

Telling me that having him in there doesn’t improve the chances of winning or improve the chances of making one single defensive stop is pure looney tunes nonsense that literally no one believes.

Once again, what was the score in that KC game?

 

[Absurdly Metro]

I feel sorry for high school athletes who break team rules and get booted off the team for having a drink. They are kids and don't know any better. I feel zero sympathy for a professional athlete signed to a huge contract that won't follow the team rules and gets benched for the biggest game in the world. He let his team down, he let the fans down and he should be ashamed.

BB himself said the benching was a football decision and was not disciplinary.