Malcolm Butler sort of talks about his SB benching

[lancerman]

No coach is going to let a personal difference against a player get in the way of a championship game. Do you REALLY think Bill sat a heathy Malcolm for SPITE???? That would go against EVERYTHING the guy had don't during his first 50 years in the league. It makes absolutely no sense on ANY level. My proof is the lack of any so called "truth" to come out in 7 years since the game.

Even if Bill caught Malcolm sleeping with the missus, he wouldn't have done it out of respect to the other 52 players who had laid it on the line for him. If there is a story to be told somewhere down the line, it will be that for whatever reason, Malcolm was not the best player up for that particular game.

Belichick benched Welker who was our top WR that year for a quarter in a playoff game because he made a foot joke about Rex Ryan. So I don’t know why we are pretending he has this long history of not valuing personal discipline over putting the best guys on the field. The amount of times we heard of someone missing an alarm clock and getting benched is kinda comical. And no that doesn’t happen everywhere. Parcell’s famously once wrote Belichick off for telling him that LT was late for a meeting. To Bill’s credit, his way also worked for a long time. But the idea that all his benching were about what helped the team win is silly. We know why most of benching happened.

It being a purely a performance thing holds up until you reach the point where your defense is getting killed and the cornerback who was a starter all year and took the most snaps at the position that year is crying on the sideline and Bill wouldn’t put him back in.

Anyways, like I said in an early post, there’s exactly one person on the whole planet who definitely got an explanation for it because it’s his team and he signs Bill’s checks and can demand demand an answer. That particular person straight up said to the whole world that he felt like that was the only time in Belichick’s entire tenure that he felt Bill put himself over the team. I also get Kraft is on the **** list right now, but if anybody got a reason from BB, it was him. And Bill would have no problem calling someone an idiot if they were publicly lying about him.

 

[n1997y]

No coach is going to let a personal difference against a player get in the way of a championship game. Do you REALLY think Bill sat a heathy Malcolm for SPITE???? That would go against EVERYTHING the guy had don't during his first 50 years in the league. It makes absolutely no sense on ANY level. My proof is the lack of any so called "truth" to come out in 7 years since the game.

Even if Bill caught Malcolm sleeping with the missus, he wouldn't have done it out of respect to the other 52 players who had laid it on the line for him. If there is a story to be told somewhere down the line, it will be that for whatever reason, Malcolm was not the best player up for that particular game.

^^^THIS^^^

There’s only one reason for Malcolm to be adamantly keeping it covered up even now: whatever it was is very bad for him. Very very bad.

He and Bill may be the only two who know the specific details. Maybe someone else does, unless Bill learned about directly from Malcolm, or himself. It’s quite possible the guy who signs the checks got told by Bill “you don’t want to know” with enough to be convincing without going into details.

But whatever it is, it comes down to Malcolm not being the best player to play even when his replacement was not getting the job done.

Was it medical?
Did Malcolm do something that made Bill unable to trust him even being on the field?
Did Bill catch Nick Foles leaving Malcolm’s room after curfew?
Was it something that Bill told RKK would make the league punishment worse thn Spygate?
Did Belichick just get drunk, have a psychotic break, and that once act contrary to his entire football career?

We won’t ever know. Doesn’t matter anyway, game is in the books.

 

[lancerman]

It’s quite possible the guy who signs the checks got told by Bill “you don’t want to know” with enough to be convincing without going into details.

It’s possible Belichick said that to him. However it’s quite clear that IF he did (and I don’t think did), it was not convincing because less than a year ago Kraft said it was Bill putting himself above the team.

So either Belichick told his boss and he knows (most likely) or Belichick deflected and his boss was not convinced, nor were many players at the time.

Either way, it’s not both. Kraft clearly thinks Bill made a personal decision and sacrificed the teams best chance at winning for it. And by most accounts, a lot of players do.

And like I said, a star WR got benched for part of a playoff game for making a foot joke about the coach of another team, so this idea that Bill only makes performance based roster decisions and doesn’t let his personal feelings on a matter influence who he lets play just isn’t historically accurate. We’ve seen plenty of examples of his opinion of culture triumphing over the best talent playing and they weren’t all these severe scenarios either like you are laying out. A foot joke, a player missing an alarm, etc. Most of the time it worked out, this was a major time it didn’t and it had consequences. So at the end of the day, it’s hard to judge him too much for it because he usually won doing things his way.

 

[Pape]

Belichick benched Welker who was our top WR that year for a quarter in a playoff game because he made a foot joke about Rex Ryan. So I don’t know why we are pretending he has this long history of not valuing personal discipline over putting the best guys on the field. The amount of times we heard of someone missing an alarm clock and getting benched is kinda comical. And no that doesn’t happen everywhere. Parcell’s famously once wrote Belichick off for telling him that LT was late for a meeting. To Bill’s credit, his way also worked for a long time. But the idea that all his benching were about what helped the team win is silly. We know why most of benching happened.

He sat Welker for a series, not a quarter.

 

[farn]

People are ridiculous. Brady over BB « it’s all about the players ». Same people « BB cost us the Welker foot game and the Malcolm benching SB ».

Choose one.

 

[gobesmug]

With the little info we have it's never going to make sense but I suppose if you want to believe it was something personal then that's your choice. Just pointing out how people generally say they don't know what happened but then blame Bill.

That's a fair point. I agree that Butler is fully to blame for his actions that led to being disciplined.

But mistakes happen and letting the whole team fail over it was Belichick's choice. If what Butler did was so egregious that it was worth losing the superbowl then he never should have been on the field to begin with and should have been a GameDay inactive.

Having your starting CB, who was the hero from the Seahawks superbowl, crying on the sidelines was a terrible look and poor leadership decision by Belichick. Who knows how that affected the morale of the defense.

 

[gobesmug]

He sat Welker for a series, not a quarter.

Football is a game of inches. One failed drive can cost the game.

 

[Pape]

Football is a game of inches. One failed drive can cost the game.

overall, its been blown out of proportion... that particular drive welker missed ended in an interception on a throw to bjge... seems to me we were moving the ball just fine without welker in there until that point...

 

[Huckleberry1]

That's still a personal reason to not play him the entire game.

Bench him the first half then cut him after the game, but letting a personal reason outweigh a football decision was dumb.

He was a free agent after the game.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Can someone change the title of this thread to Butler Doesn’t Talk About His Benching?

 

[borg]

Even if Bill caught Malcolm sleeping with the missus, he wouldn't have done it out of respect to the other 52 players who had laid it on the line for him.

So, it's a one-way street? The player has no obligation to respect the organization.....a Bill Belichick run organization.
Your conclusion to your example is absurd.

 

[sb1]

Yeah the whole argument about his performance being the reason he didn’t play doesn’t work for me. Hard to believe he wouldn’t have been an immediate upgrade to whoever was out there when Foles was torching our defense.

 

[1960Pats]

“Coach’s decision”

And cost us a ring. No doubt about it

I think it was a coaches decision that Malcolm agrees with because he did do something wrong.

 

[sb1]

Can someone change the title of this thread to Butler Doesn’t Talk About His Benching?

Changed it to sort of talks…

98.5 had a clickbait headline that he finally admits the reason. “Coaches decision”. Lol

 

[archstanton543]

Whatever he did it must have been extremely bad since I'm sure he's been offered a boatload of money for the real story.

Or he legit doesn't know why (I mean, I don't really buy that but maybe he's just not that smart).

 

[1960Pats]

Football is a game of inches. One failed drive can cost the game.

I think it could have had an effect on the general attitude of the players. They were caught off guard by it and played poorly against a team they had totally dominated just weeks before.

 

[Steve102]

Right up there with "don't meet your heroes" is "don't pursue hidden truths".

He seemed to intimate that there was an agreement to not discuss it.

 

[TomPatriot]

It’s possible Belichick said that to him. However it’s quite clear that IF he did (and I don’t think did), it was not convincing because less than a year ago Kraft said it was Bill putting himself above the team.

So either Belichick told his boss and he knows (most likely) or Belichick deflected and his boss was not convinced, nor were many players at the time.

Either way, it’s not both. Kraft clearly thinks Bill made a personal decision and sacrificed the teams best chance at winning for it. And by most accounts, a lot of players do.

And like I said, a star WR got benched for part of a playoff game for making a foot joke about the coach of another team, so this idea that Bill only makes performance based roster decisions and doesn’t let his personal feelings on a matter influence who he lets play just isn’t historically accurate. We’ve seen plenty of examples of his opinion of culture triumphing over the best talent playing and they weren’t all these severe scenarios either like you are laying out. A foot joke, a player missing an alarm, etc. Most of the time it worked out, this was a major time it didn’t and it had consequences. So at the end of the day, it’s hard to judge him too much for it because he usually won doing things his way.

He was well short of capable DBs even with Butler, so taking him out for whatever reason is just a bad decision for the team, the organization and the fans. It probably cost them the game. And he never told anyone why. Anything less than a serious crime means it’s a stupid call.

 

[Patsfan1645]

Butler crying right before the game told us he just found out.

And had this happened in 2014 during the 10 year drought, I think Bob would've fired Bill. However, I blame the veterans on defense and Tom Brady for not stepping up while the team was getting scored on to put him in. The leaders of the team didn't show up.

Are you certain they did not?

 

[Steve102]

People are ridiculous. Brady over BB « it’s all about the players ». Same people « BB cost us the Welker foot game and the Malcolm benching SB ».

Choose one.

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.