{"id":451005,"date":"2026-02-03T10:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/451005\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T10:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:53:07","slug":"butler-did-it-11-years-on-was-the-nfls-most-criticized-call-actually-the-right-decision-super-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/451005\/","title":{"rendered":"Butler did it: 11 years on, was the NFL\u2019s most criticized call actually the right decision? | Super Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the New England Patriots faced off against the Denver Broncos in this season\u2019s AFC championship<\/a>, Malcolm Butler was at home in Houston. He had considered attending the game in Denver or watching on TV in a No 21 Patriots jersey, which he wore in Foxboro for four seasons through the mid-to-late 2010s, but feared he might jinx the outcome. In the end, it was just him and his nerves for company.<\/p>\n

Just as Butler was feeling somewhat at peace with that setup, and the Patriots\u2019 prospects, a bad omen intruded: His wifi glitched, delaying the broadcast as the Patriots clung on to a three-point lead in the fourth-quarter. \u201cI was lagging bad,\u201d Butler tells the Guardian. \u201cBut I did get the wifi back working. And as soon as I did my phone was ringing like crazy, so I knew something was going right. It\u2019s crazy that we\u2019re back.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a 10-7 victory, New England booked their 10th Super Bowl appearance in the past 24 years and the team\u2019s 12th overall. On Sunday, they\u2019ll face Seattle in a rematch of the Patriots\u2019 28-24 victory<\/a> over the Seahawks in 2015\u2019s Super Bowl XLIX. Victory this Sunday at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, would break the Patriots\u2019 stalemate with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl victories<\/a> by a franchise ever, at seven. And New England\u2019s success story couldn\u2019t be told without Butler.<\/p>\n

Two years into retirement, the 36-year-old remains one of football\u2019s biggest emotional triggers \u2013 the defensive back who reshaped legacies and kindled a lasting firestorm on one mind-bending play. \u201cIt\u2019s most definitely been life-changing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the best plays ever made in Super Bowl<\/a> history \u2013 in NFL history.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who somehow missed it: in Super Bowl XLIX, Seattle were four points behind against New England with a minute left. They had four cracks to all but win the game from the Patriots\u2019 five-yard line. After Seattle\u2019s Marshawn Lynch gained four yards to set up second-and-goal from England\u2019s one-yard line, most assumed the Seahawks would hand the ball again to Lynch \u2013 the Skittles-scarfing<\/a> bruiser whose impact was once measured on the Richter scale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, with a green light from head coach Pete Carroll, Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell called a pass play \u2013 a quick slant to Ricardo Lockette. The basic idea: Jermaine Kearse, staggered just inside of Lockett on the far side of the field, would take out his man \u2013 Patriots corner Brandon Browner \u2013 and Lockette would slip in underneath the block for the catch and leave Butler, an undrafted rookie, in no-man\u2019s land. The Seahawks had exploited the Patriots\u2019 tight man coverage schemes throughout the game with their rub concepts. All Seattle quarterback Russell Willson needed was one more completion to revel in confetti as a two-time Super Bowl winner and, likely, the game\u2019s MVP.<\/p>\n

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But in a turn no one watching \u2013 and I mean no one \u2013 saw coming, Butler thundered down to the goalline, crashed into Kearse and intercepted the pass<\/a> to thwart the Seahawks comeback. Two Tom Brady kneel downs sealed a fourth Patriots\u2019 Super Bowl win that still feels like a rip in the space-time continuum: The Seahawks had the game in the bag \u2013 and Malcolm Butler swiped the bag. \u201cI ain\u2019t got nothin but one job to do,\u201d he remembers telling himself. \u201cIf they throw this ball, it\u2019s mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butler\u2019s interception still stands as one of the most dramatic plot twists to ever unfold with a championship on the line \u2013 more cosmically random than Bill Buckner\u2019s between-the-legs World Series error<\/a> or Steve Bartman\u2019s NLCS souvenir<\/a>, more crushing than the Golden State Warriors blowing a 3-1 NBA finals<\/a> lead in 2016 or the Atlanta Falcons wasting a 28-3 Super Bowl lead<\/a>, wilder than Zinedine Zidane headbutting himself<\/a> out of the World Cup final, more outrageous than Lewis Hamilton\u2019s being controversially denied an eighth F1 title.<\/a> Down the years Carroll has said that the Seahawks would have definitely won more Super Bowls if a certain Patriots cornerback hadn\u2019t gotten in the way. \u201cSometimes you can\u2019t be greedy,\u201d Butler says. \u201cJust take the win. I don\u2019t know if there was something wrong with who wanted to be MVP or whatever, but it\u2019s selfish.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year before Butler\u2019s epic turnover, I found myself in the Seahawks locker room after they crushed Denver 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII<\/a>, watching defensive players mutter and shake their heads over not keeping Peyton Manning off the scoreboard entirely. It was terrifying to imagine all the winning this young team might do in the years ahead, simply in the name of pride.<\/p>\n

But Butler\u2019s pick cracked something fundamental in the Seahawks; once touted as a dynasty in the making, the Seahawks devolved into a Dynasty-level soap opera. Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett and other members of Seattle\u2019s vaunted Legion of Boom defense came to publicly resent Wilson for, in their view, hoarding credit for the team\u2019s success, and Carroll and general manager John Schneider for protecting the quarterback, opening a rift in the locker room<\/a> that led to the defense\u2019s dismantling.<\/p>\n

Wilson slowly transformed from one of the NFL\u2019s most admired players into its most polarizing<\/a>; since being traded to Denver in 2022, he has bounced around two teams and could well wind up on a third when his contract with New York Giants expires in March. In 2024 the Seahawks parted ways with Carroll, the architect of their most successful era. Only Schneider hung on long enough to steer the Seahawks back in a Super Bowl \u2013 and with the franchise\u2019s future ownership in flux amid talk of a post\u2011game sale<\/a>, there\u2019s no guarantee he\u2019ll be around for the next one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe [were] at the peak of our careers with a chance to go ahead and start a dynasty,\u201d Lynch said in a 2023 podcast appearance, \u201cand we fumbled the bag on the [one]-yard line.\u201d The Seahawks\u2019 Bennett and Bruce Irvin only compounded the damage after Butler\u2019s interception, drawing flags for encroachment and fighting as New England, already pushed back by penalties for their overzealous celebration of Butler\u2019s pick, inched closer to their own end zone. Those Seattle penalties eliminated any chance of a fumbled snap, a safety or even a lucky touchdown if the Pats had somehow turned it over \u2013 leaving only two stress-free kneeldowns for Brady.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Butler went on to win another Super Bowl with the Patriots in February 2017. Photograph: Icon Sportswire\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The fallout from the Seahawks\u2019 choice not to run the ball, which helped start a streak that saw Brady win two more Super Bowls in New England over the next four years and now sets the stage for another possible run with second-year Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, has only made it easier to second\u2011guess that final play \u2013 and the Monday morning quarterbacking is hardly restricted to media and fans. In 2023 Carroll appeared on Richard Sherman\u2019s podcast to unpack the whole episode and said he made the call based on feel. But \u2013 and consider this a flaming hot-take warning \u2013 not only was Carroll not numb to the situation, he made the correct call.<\/p>\n

To recap: The Seahawks had four attempts at the end zone from the Patriots\u2019 five-yard line with about a minute left \u2013 and a timeout in their pocket. It\u2019s logical that at least one of those plays would be a pass to keep the Patriots\u2019 defense guessing \u2013 and who better to pick on than Butler, a vagabond of college football\u2019s lower tier who had agreed to sign with the Patriots for a deal that notably did not include a signing bonus. Kearse had already beaten Butler on a pair of completions earlier in the game, the most memorable a spectacular juggling catch on his back for a 33\u2011yard gain that put Seattle at New England\u2019s doorstep just a few plays earlier.<\/p>\n

After Lynch\u2019s four-yard carry, the rub route was the next logical play call \u2013 and, with Butler playing eight yards off Kearse, it was set to work flawlessly. But Butler was well prepared. \u201cBeing around great coaches and players, you understand situational football,\u201d he says. \u201cFrom the one-yard line, the only thing Kearse can do is run a slant or an out route. I didn\u2019t know the pick to set up the slant was coming, but I only had one job to do and that was cover the guy and make a play.\u201d<\/p>\n

With slightly better execution from the Seahawks, he might not have. \u201c[Kearse] could have run a harder route to make us both break up the throw,\u201d Butler says. \u201cBut I just wanted the ball more.\u201d Still, he concedes the story might have been different if the game had come down to him and a handoff to Lynch, a running back it usually took a mob<\/a> to bring down. \u201cIf they run the ball,\u201d says Butler, who, at a listed 190lbs, was giving up at least 25lbs to Lynch back then. \u201cI\u2019m not making that tackle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot believe the call,\u201d NBC\u2019s Cris Collinsworth screeched on the telecast, oblivious to how much his outraged first-hand impression would shape future discussion of the touchdown pass that wasn\u2019t. \u201cIf I lose the Super Bowl because Marshawn Lynch can\u2019t get it in from the one-yard line, so be it. But there is no way \u2026 why?!\u201d Conversely, had the pass play worked, Collinsworth almost certainly would have spun it as a testament to Carroll\u2019s gumption and Bevell\u2019s acumen, all while anointing Wilson the next Tom Brady.<\/p>\n

While the Seahawks were reduced to a short-run playoff contender in the years after that play \u2013 \u201cas catastrophic as any moment can be,\u201d Carroll described it to Sherman in their 2023 sitdown \u2013 Butler cemented his place on the Patriots defense and added another championship after New England came back from 28\u20113 down to win Super Bowl LI in 2017; years later, he signed a blockbuster contract worth more than $30m in guarantees with the Tennessee Titans to play for Mike Vrabel, the ex-Pats player turned coach who will lead New England against Seattle on Sunday.<\/p>\n

After Brady was named the Super Bowl MVP against the Seahawks, he gave Butler the grand prize \u2013 a brand new Chevy Colorado pickup truck, the last car ever given<\/a> to the game\u2019s top performer. \u201cEverybody that saw that play knows what it means,\u201d says Butler. \u201cBut to me, it\u2019s just waking up in my house, taking out the trash and looking at my Tom Brady truck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good run of fortune is why he has no regrets about Bill Belichick suddenly benching him for the Patriots\u2019 upset defeat to Philadelphia in the 2018 Super Bowl, and why he feels compelled to defend his former coach after his recent hall of fame snub<\/a>. \u201cThis man is top three in everything he\u2019s done: winning, postseason victories, Super Bowl rings,\u201d says Butler, who also credits Belichick for facilitating his Patriots return in 2022, essentially as a retirement gesture. \u201cI know sometimes you just gotta ignore stupid stuff, but I don\u2019t agree with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days Butler dedicates himself to giving back \u2013 hosting free football camps at his Mississippi high school for the past 11 years, donating free coats and meals through the United Way and collaborating with the American Diabetes Association to raise awareness. For the past three years he has served as the volunteer assistant defensive backs coach at Houston\u2019s St Thomas High, and the team hasn\u2019t missed the playoffs yet. But Butler\u2019s players\u2019 loyalty to him doesn\u2019t necessarily guarantee loyalty to his old team, a fact he learned not long after the Patriots-Seahawks matchup was set.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of my players are Seahawks fans. One of them texted me: \u2018You\u2019re not playing this time,\u2019\u201d says Butler. It\u2019s not unlike the hesitant acknowledgements he receives from heartbroken Seahawks fans who respect the player, hate that game and remain endlessly haunted by the play that forever lives in championship infamy. \u201cUsually, they\u2019ll be like, \u2018Good play, bro. We should\u2019ve ran it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every morning he wakes up grateful they never did.<\/p>\n