I love the Malcolm Butler story
I don’t ordinarily write about football, except for the obligatory open thread for the Superbowl—and I don’t always even do that.
So this may be the lengthiest football thread I’ll ever write.
I’m not a football fan, although I know the basic rules and I watch it on occasion when there’s some special reason. But for the Superbowl last night I had a plan (you might say I had a game plan). Watching the entire thing would be too boring, so I’d watch part of the half-time show and then the second half of the game if it looked interesting. It looked interesting, because the game was tied at the half, but somewhere in the third quarter I just couldn’t go on. The Patriots were looking bad—behind by ten points—as well as lackluster.
Although I had planned to tune in briefly now and then to monitor the score, sometime not long after I had turned off the TV my phone rang. It was an old friend who lives far away and whom I’ve been trying to reach for weeks. She finally had some free time, and so I figured I’d talk to her—a good long talk, about an hour or more. After all, I wasn’t missing a thing; who cared about the crummy old game?
Well, you know how that turned out. I missed the whole thing and had to play catch-up with (a) the Greatest Miracle Catch in History Carrying on the Tradition of Heartbreaking Patriots’ Losses; and then (b) the Worst Play Call in History; and then (c) the Greatest Interception in History; all going to make up (d) the Greatest Superbowl in History.
That’s a whole lotta history going on—and me, gabbing on the phone the whole time, just like a girl (and I throw like a girl, too—one of the most obnoxious Superbowl ads ever, wasn’t it?).
So of course then I had to watch the replays and listen to the commentary and read up on exactly what had happened. And it was the tale of Malcolm Butler, rookie hero, that most grabbed me:
That it was Butler who made Seattle pay is every bit as astounding as the misjudgment to begin with. Super Bowl XLIX was full of players who had been overlooked in the NFL Draft before establishing themselves in the league. But Butler was overlooked even among guys who had been overlooked. Nobody had farther to climb than him. It’s one thing to be undrafted like a Doug Baldwin out of Stanford; more than one team is going to call.
When you’re undrafted out of West Alabama, you might only hear from one.
“[The Patriots] were the only team that have me an opportunity,” Butler said Sunday night, “and I’m so glad they did.”
So is New England. Butler was a long shot to make the team, until he did. He was a long shot to stay active for most of the season, until he passed Alfonzo Dennard on the depth chart. He was a long shot to see action on Sunday night as the Pats’ fifth corner, until Kyle Arrington spent the first 35 minutes of the game getting handled by Chris Matthews.
(No, not that Chris Matthews.)
Pete Carroll’s explanation for his own team’s move seemed weak, to say the least:
[Seahawks’ coach] Carroll’s explanation: He saw the Patriots bring in a formation with eight big guys and three cornerbacks and didn’t think Lynch, who tied for the league lead with 13 touchdowns rushing this season, would be able to bull it in against that defense.
“It’s not a great matchup for us to run the football, so we were going to throw the ball, really to waste a play,” Carroll said. “If we score, we do, if we don’t, we’ll run it in on third or fourth down.”
Butler showed a sharp eye for detail, quick thinking, and quick physical action too:
“I saw Wilson looking over there (towards the receivers),” Butler said. “He kept his head still and just looked over there, so that gave me a clue, and the stacked receivers, I just knew they were going to throw. My instincts, I just went with it, just went with my mind and made the play.”
There’s that explanation. But there’s also the explanation that Butler can’t explain:
“I just had a vision that I was going to make a big play, and it came true,” Butler said afterward. “I’m just blessed. I can’t explain it right now.”
To make the event even more dramatic, just a tad earlier Butler had had a really tough break:
Only moments earlier, things were playing out much differently for Butler. He was in coverage — good coverage — against Seahawks receiver Jermaine Kearse and appeared to bat the ball down for an incompletion. But as Kearse was falling, the ball bobbled between his legs, and he kept it in the air by batting it twice while tumbling. Kearse made the catch on his back for a 33-yard gain that gave Seattle a first-and-goal at the 5.
Butler went to the sideline.
“My teammates were saying, nine out of 10 times, that ball is incomplete,” he said. “It was devastating.”
A play later, Lynch had bulled the ball to the 1.
And then Butler became the Comeback Kid of all time.
I love stories like that.
[NOTE: Some great footage and photos here that show the plays involved fairly clearly.]
[ADDENDUM: Butler interview:
Hat tip: commenter “CV.”
And here’s another really enjoyable interview:
There’s something exceptionally winning about his personality.
And here’s a good article from last summer about Butler’s road to pro ball. It was written before the Superbowl, of course, but the seeds of what happened last night are there.
More here:
In recapping the play immediately after he left the field, he actually thought the ball was on the 3- or 4-yard line. He said he couldn’t explain it, but he just knew what was coming in part because of his résumé.
“I’m pretty sure he knows I’m a rookie, and who wouldn’t try a rookie?” he said. “I was ready.”
“Ready” is an understatement. As one of the comments at the article says, ” Most guys, especially an unheralded rookie, would be down after Kearse’s catch, but Butler’s stays focused on the task at hand and notices a familiar formation because he STUDIED.”]
PATRIOTS vs SEAHAWKS haiku
It’s no mystery
Who deflated the Seahawks.
The Butler did it!
And if the Seahawks had won you could have written a similar piece about Matthews who made his first ever NFL catch in this game and went on to make four and a touchdown.
Butler only played two years of high school ball in Vicksburg, Miss. He played two years in a junior college (Hinds JC)near Jackson Mississippi. Playing at the Division II level at West Alabama, Butler was very effective and had lots of regional recognition in his league. The Patriots found him somehow.
On the miracle catch Butler’s tight coverage probably saved a touchdown.
This morning, John Madden said it was the greatest game he had ever watched, as a fan. That meant he is excluding those in which he was involved as a player, coach or TV analyst.
As a 49ers fan, I wasn’t a partisan. I was immensely entertained throughout.
Bernard:
🙂
A great life lesson for us all. We all have the capacity to be the hero don t we. That young man could have hung back but he seized the moment! And it came to him & on such a big stage. He genuinely looked speechless & in shock on the
Sideline. It was a rollercoaster of emotion tp watch live neo
You missed the chance to get your stress hormones flowing
With the circus Seattle catch followed by a flood of good endorphins when we got that intercept !!
Sweet & so sublime !
I am girl that loves football picked it up watching Sundays
With dad !
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-head-coach-botched-the-end-of-the-super-bowl-and-it-wasnt-pete-carroll/
Alex:
Bottom line: if Butler doesn’t intercept, no one cares one whit about Carrol’s decision to pass instead of give the ball to Lynch. The Seahawks win, and Carrol’s a genius.
It Butler intercepts (a highly astounding feat under the circumstances) Carrol becomes an idiot.
And yet Carrol’s decision was the same in either case.
I mentioned this in earlier thread, but check out Malcolm Butler interview on NBC this morning:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36090945?launch=56916496&config=26185044
Very humble, deserving young man. He seems a bit shell-shocked, of course!
I have also been impressed with the positive, very Christian response exhibited by Russell Wilson, who threw that interception. Also classy and humble, as his tweets reveal:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-russell-wilson-tweets-20150202-story.html
CV:
Thanks for the link to the Butler interview. He’s one happy camper today. I put the video up as an addendum to the post.
The 12s in Puget Sound (of which I’m not really one since I’m a lifetime Bronco fan) are depressed today. There is a lot of finger pointing at Carroll and Bevel. However, as pointed out in the link by Alex, it was the high percentage call.
As Richard Sherman and a few other Seahawks players said, “They made the play.” Or specifically Butler made the play. It’s tough to lose when it’s seemingly in your grasp, but the Seahawks and the 12s will recover.
Best Superbowl ever? This one was good, but my nomination would be Superbowl XXXII in 1998. Denver over Green Bay 31 to 24. The game was tied until the winning touchdown was scored with 1:52 to go. Another quality game. Especially meaningful to Bronco fans who had endured four Superbowl losses before that first win.
My allegiance to the Broncos goes way back to my years of living in Colorado. Had the pleasure of flying Bronco charters on many occasions when they were owned by the Phipps brothers. Those were the days before airline security was a big deal. On the charters it was legal to open the cockpit door after reaching cruise altitude. Many of the players would come up and chat with us. We asked questions about the team. They asked questions about flying and airplanes. Got to know a few of them as human beings, not just padded gridiron gladiators. I moved to the Pacific Northwest, but my allegiance to the Broncos remains.
This type of story is why we love sports.
“I just knew they were going to throw. My instincts, I just went with it, just went with my mind and made the play.” Malcolm Butler
From neo’s linked article: “Butler read the play immediately, took the perfect route to the ball, and was tougher at the point of contact than Lockette. If he’s a hair slower, or lets Lockette bump him off the ball, the Patriots lose and we never even think about the play call.”
That made me think of this;
Brutus:
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218—224
The most impressive part is that there was no pause, no hesitation on Butler’s part.
Just an extra fraction of a second to confirm his analysis and move, maybe he still knocks the ball away from Lockette, but he doesn’t get that interception. If he only knocks the ball down, that’s 2 downs for Lynch or maybe Wilson, a dynamic runner in his own right, to run it in from a yard out.
Watch the movie “Invincible.”
What, a Disney movie about the Philadelphia Eagles way back when, under Dick Vermeil as the new head coach? Yes.
It is a very nice movie, with a good old-fashioned moral, and some startling visual accuracy, like Vermeil’s white (yes, I remember!) belt.
It was a good game. I live in Portland, Oregon, was born in Seattle, so theoretically I should have been on their side (as I was last year). But something about them has put me off a bit, so I was reasonably neutral. You get more of a real charge out of the experience when you’re more strongly emotionally involved. Nevertheless it was fun.
I played a fair amount of high school sports, and had different periods of being either a star or important player in either football, basketball or baseball. “Mind over matter” seemed to enter into the equation much more in football than in baseball or basketball. So it can become interesting on a level quite separate from learned and practiced skills. Something almost “magical” can take over.
Interesting background on Malcolm Butler!
We really enjoyed the game, and as Pats fans, the last 2 1/2 minutes were a roller-coaster of emotions. The interception had us jumping up and down with glee.
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