You know what?
Name one play in the last five years where a player "jumped a route" in as impossible fashion as Butler did to Wilson/Lockette.
I don't know how to define "impossible" but roughly speaking the play looks impossible at first, second, and third viewing.
I'm not talking about the game situation or pick 6's or anything like that. Just the jump of the route and the interception. You know a short slant with the corner that far off the line is supposed to be impossible to intercept at all: the WR needs to run about 70% of the distance of the corner, and the WR knows where he is going pre-snap.
And if you can't name one jumped route as athletically and skill-wise impressive as Butler's, then stop saying (not just you but all the Butler-detractors) that Butler just "jumped a route" or that it was a "great play" like 20 other "great plays."
I'm not familiar with all the jumped routes in the world but I do know that I've never seen a jumped route like that and asking for two weeks in several threads anyone on this message board to name one, nobody has. So it's not a "jumped route" or a "great play" it's unprecedented or nearly so.
I'm saying "5 years" because that's how far back Game Rewind goes.
Seems to me that we need to keep two possibly conflicting ideas in our heads at the same time here.
Butler did do more than make one great play (and, it was indeed a "great play," which I define as one that will be talked about for years and taught at every level of the game for multiple reasons, even beyond those you site). But, in addition to that great play, he also made several important plays, none more significant than having the presence of mind to push Kearse out of bounds after his circus catch (he also got away with a deftly executed "trip" at one point when he was beaten on a critical third down).
But, what Brady did on two consecutive drives in the fourth quarter will, once the dust has settled and people are able to look beyond Butler's brilliant play that saved the game, also be talked about for years to come. He led the Pats down the field twice, executing precision pass after precision pass, often into a window no bigger than two or three feet, with, as I recall, only one incompletion. He did this against one of the greatest defenses every to take the field in February, and I don't care how "banged up" it was.
So, the conflicting ideas are that they couldn't have won the game without the accomplishments of Brady or Butler, but Brady deserves to have been MVP for bringing them back from ten down in the fourth quarter and completing more passes than any other QB in the history of the SB. He was miked up for the entire game and it's clear that he held the team together through those dark moments in the third quarter and in face of the challenges of the fourth quarter. I don't even think it's a close call.
As I said elsewhere, Butler deserves a game ball, a chance to cut a few commercials that will pay him far more than his Rookie UDFA salary, whatever boost in salary the CBA allows, the benefit of the doubt when it comes to making the roster next year and, hopefully, a boost to his confidence that will allow him to go from an obscure guy down the depth chart to a great career in the NFL. In other words, I am pulling for Butler and hope that, five years from now, this is viewed as the beginning of Malcolm Butler's NFL prominence and not his "one great moment."
