Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

[Satchboogie3]

Look. I'm pissed at BB too. Part of me wishes he was John Calipari and let players do what they want as long as they win.

But that's not who he is and I don't think in the 18 years he's run this team he hasn't changed a damn bit.

That's just it though, a lot of fans aren't willing to even entertain the thought that BB might have made a bad decision and a decision that cost them the game. Hell, some actually believe Butler wouldn't have made any difference! That's nuts. At worst, at least you tried. They didn't. BB can't say this team give it 100% of everything they had with Butler standing on the sidelines all game. He just can't.

 

[JPPT1974]

If all possible Brady could play until he was 50!

 

[SHOWTIME15]

For whatever reason BB lost confidence in Malcolm's ability to carry out the game plan .

Look. I'm pissed at BB too. Part of me wishes he was John Calipari and let players do what they want as long as they win.

But that's not who he is and I don't think in the 18 years he's run this team he hasn't changed a damn bit.

He's just too old school with disciplinary stuff, much like Tom Coughlin. I agree that if the reports are true then Butler should be punished but not for the super bowl. Heck, players like Irvin and Deion used to party all the time and they showed up for the Super Bowl. All anyone remembers is who wins and who loses.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

That's just it though, a lot of fans aren't willing to even entertain the thought that BB might have made a bad decision and a decision that cost them the game. Hell, some actually believe Butler wouldn't have made any difference! That's nuts. At worst, at least you tried. They didn't. BB can't say this team give it 100% of everything they had with Butler standing on the sidelines all game. He just can't.

It's simply not good enough for him to say "the loss is on me."

 

[PatsGirl2011]

Bademosi played 11 snaps. Stop making dumb comments and trying to scapegoat others simply to boost brady’s legacy. Scapegoating bademosi who barely played is insanity. Agoholor would have destroyed butler and so would have jeffery.

The only flaw was not giving rowe help to take away the deeper balls. DOes anyone realize foles made some great throws?

Garoppolo was traded and maybe, just maybe special privileges for brady has backfired.

Brady wants to play until 45, so we are locks for the next 5 sbs, right?

Lol. You are delusional.

 

[RobertWeathers]

That's just it though, a lot of fans aren't willing to even entertain the thought that BB might have made a bad decision and a decision that cost them the game. Hell, some actually believe Butler wouldn't have made any difference! That's nuts. At worst, at least you tried. They didn't. BB can't say this team give it 100% of everything they had with Butler standing on the sidelines all game. He just can't.

Of course it's possible BB f-ed up. He's screwed up 100s of times. Drafts. Game plans, etc.

Here is the thing I keep coming back to: He's going for SB #6. He's spent big money on FA and draft capital for players to load up for this year. The SB is in his grasp.

He's been coach here for 18 years. You know him. Do you really think he would freeze out Malcolm, his #2CB and SB hero in the biggest, the most historical game of his coaching career over something so miniscule as a curfew violation?

There is much more to this.

 

[Kdo5]

Details about Malcolm Butler situation starting to emerge

If that's true than it is even more stupid of Belichick. No wonder the defense was as discombobulated and out of whack. That is a distraction for both the players and coaches. You would think the best in the business would have the foresight to know the consequences of doing this.

 

[SalemPats]

He's just too old school with disciplinary stuff, much like Tom Coughlin. I agree that if the reports are true then Butler should be punished but not for the super bowl. Heck, players like Irvin and Deion used to party all the time and they showed up for the Super Bowl. All anyone remembers is who wins and who loses.

and it's also the last game he will ever play as a Patriot. You're not sending him a message. That first drive if Gilmore is on Jeffrey and Butler is on Aghalor they might not score a TD and then who knows what happens. I think it's safe to say that as a HC, this was BB's worst move he has ever made

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

Nelson Agholor had the flu and received an IV two days before the game. He played excellent.

Butler was on the field, suited up and ready to go. There’s no excuses for what Belichick pulled.

Agholor killed us. Butler would have been on him.

 

[SalemPats]

Of course it's possible BB f-ed up. He's screwed up 100s of times. Drafts. Game plans, etc.

Here is the thing I keep coming back to: He's going for SB #6. He's spent big money on FA and draft capital for players to load up for this year. The SB is in his grasp.

He's been coach here for 18 years. You know him. Do you really think he would freeze out Malcolm, his #2CB and SB hero in the biggest, the most historical game of his coaching career over something so miniscule as a curfew violation?

There is much more to this.

I think he had a bad weak of practice, Butler knew this was his last game as a Patriot and BB thought i'd rather go with the guys who will be here next year. It will go down as his biggest mistake as a coach. It cost us the SB

 

[fightingirish595]

For whatever reason BB lost confidence in Malcolm's ability to carry out the game plan .

Look. I'm pissed at BB too. Part of me wishes he was John Calipari and let players do what they want as long as they win.

But that's not who he is and I don't think in the 18 years he's run this team he hasn't changed a damn bit.

Except Calipari doesnt win, And BB is 100 times the coach Cal is

 

[SalemPats]

Agholor killed us. Butler would have been on him.

And Jeffrey on those first 2 drives before Gilmore shadowed him.

 

[Satchboogie3]

It's simply not good enough for him to say "the loss is on me."

It's just insane. Everyone around me, we were all screaming to put Butler in. It's not one bad call made in a tight pressure spot, it's 3+ hours of being an idiot. Holy ****, it's so obvious. They can't cover, they can't tackle... The best god damn tackle corner maybe in the NFL is just standing there, Bill. Why dont you try using him. Maybe you'll only have 8 broken tackles next drive instead of 10... The defense was THAT bad.

 

[RobertWeathers]

He's just too old school with disciplinary stuff, much like Tom Coughlin. I agree that if the reports are true then Butler should be punished but not for the super bowl. Heck, players like Irvin and Deion used to party all the time and they showed up for the Super Bowl. All anyone remembers is who wins and who loses.

So BB is the uncompromising, rules above God old coach now?

Whatever the rules, 51 other players had zero problem adhering to them.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

That doesn’t change the fact that the game plan was big nickel and big dime. It’s what we played week 1 against he most similar offense we faced.
Butler being benched meant Rowe played not someone else.

I see a lot of people convinced that whoever they liked least, usually Richards, took his spot

The brain is a meaning-making machine, but to do this it creates shortcuts. It didn’t evolve to analyze, per se. to learn to do so, it had to recognize the many habits we are heir to.

We are seeing a display of such habits here. Bad outcome. What could be done? Construct narrative with aggrieved party, create mechanism whereby said crying corner creates the loss. Clearly he was replaced by someone who sucked. Who sucked hardest? Lots of guys made a good case for themselves, but consensus winner is Jordan Richards. Therefore Jordan Richards played instead of Malcolm Butler.

There is an official story. There are competing stories. We should rightly doubt one because it’s the official story. We should doubt other narratives because they’re not.

We have a vacuum that must be filled in. Are we sure we have info to connect those dots?

 

[Kdo5]

It's simply not good enough for him to say "the loss is on me."

This is a case where Belichick should man the **** up and admit specifically why he did it. This crap about "did what I thought gave us the best chance to win" is ludicrous. I'll defend Bill on a lot of things but he is hiding behind this and refusing to acknowledge that it may have been the wrong decision. It comes across as cowardly to me.

 

[cmasspatsfan]

Agreed. It was clearly more important to Bill to punish Malcolm than it was to win this game. Maybe he'd gotten spoiled and felt Brady could win it without a Defense. Tom certainly came very close. It's unheard of for the losing Super Bowl quarterback to set the record for most passing yards in a SB game in history, keep his team from punting even once the whole game, and have a better QBR and more yards than the winning quarterback and SB MVP. If I were Tom--with all I'd done and everything I'd sacrificed, only to have my head coach snatch victory away from me because he was busy throwing a temper tantrum and couldn't be bothered to do his job--I wouldn't want to see Bill's face until training camp.

After all these years that's what you think if BB? You sound like other teams fans critizing BB. He wants to win more than we want them to win. I slept like a baby last night, I bet he didn't. There's obviously more here and we'll probably never know the whole story.

 

[Chris Stevenson]

Nelson Agholor had the flu and received an IV two days before the game. He played excellent.

Butler was on the field, suited up and ready to go. There’s no excuses for what Belichick pulled.

Sorry, i think that story was a plant. The source was also rapoport who has been going crazy as a troll since he went to nfl. You don’t get an iv and then run around like that.

 

[PatriotsFan87]

In my opinion. We need to give coaching staff a benefit of the doubt. I was upset too. But I think this is a case of someone trying to be more than the team. He has no body to blame than himself. We will hear the story when it comes out. His crap is posturing for his big contract. And Bill and staff are being better. He knows why he didn't play and he threw it away. This is what i can smell... smoke there is fire.

 

[mosi]

Even if Richards plays one snap, that is one too many. In his limited snaps, how many times did he get burned? 3 or 4 in my eye.