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I woke up this morning with an aching pit in my stomach. At this point, it’s too early to tell if it’s the three pounds of Buffalo Chicken Dip I devoured, the 17 Bud Lights I gassed, or the fact that my team’s coach refused to put our biggest defensive playmaker in the Super Bowl when our defense couldn’t stop a runny nose.
Despite an appearance or two on special teams, Super Bowl XLIX hero Malcolm Butler played a total of zero defensive snaps, benched in favor of Eric Rowe. Butler played 97.8 percent of the defensive snaps in the regular season.
Butler had arrived in Minneapolis one day after the team due to an illness that left him hospitalized. But, he wasn’t on the final injury report and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia claimed Butler was healthy and kept him on the sidelines because he didn’t fit the matchup schemes. The result: the Patriots gave up the most yards EVER under Patricia, Belichick.
Butler, who was spotted crying during America The Beautiful, said after the game:
“They just gave up on me. Fuck. It is what is it.”
“I don’t know what it was. I guess I wasn’t playing good or they didn’t feel comfortable. I don’t know. But I could have changed that game.”
It’s a shame. The last time I saw Malcolm Butler crying, he had just made arguably the biggest play in franchise history.
Former Patriots cornerback Brandon Browner ripped Belichick and Patricia in a series of Instagram posts for benching a dude who could very have helped them secure their sixth Super Bowl win.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bey4b-bDbnX/?hl=en&taken-by=bbrowner39
https://www.instagram.com/p/BezLAJCj3Vr/?hl=en&taken-by=bbrowner39
https://www.instagram.com/p/BezOewrDdJW/?hl=en&taken-by=bbrowner39
https://www.instagram.com/p/BezUdD9jAlh/?hl=en&taken-by=bbrowner39
The last post was liked by Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower and former Patriot linebacker Jamie Collins.
There isn’t a beating heart in New England who doesn’t believe Bill Belichick is superhuman, but this will be a decision that will leave us scratching our heads until we’re in diapers.
[h/t Boston.com]