Stop listening to sports talk radio. Butler was playing poorly leading up to the Super Bowl and then missed massive practice time the week of the game. He wasn't better than what they put out there, and his resume is irrelevant.
Bill wouldn't kneecap his own chances at a Super Bowl because Butler used the wrong salad fork. People need to stop regurgitating that nonsense.
Nothing that Butler has done since leaving New England has lended a shred of credibility to talk that he should have been out there. I'll always love the kid, but he has been mediocre to worse in the last two seasons.
Bill went with the guys that he thought gave him the best chance, like he said. I take his word over the moron talking heads any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
The irony of all this is that Butler's signature play came because Bill sat Arrington DURING a Super Bowl.
This seems pretty over-the-top. No one is arguing that Butler was AMAZING or even above average - that season or in the ones since. No one is arguing that he was practicing well. We weren't there, the players and coaches were. Obviously. But the idea that, even with a shit-tastic week of practice, Butler "wasn't better than what they put out there," is ludicrous. Bademosi over a guy who played 98% of the snaps until that point? Butler wasn't better than Bademosi?
Really? And while Butler hasn't been amazing since he left, hasn't lived up to the big contract, that doesn't equal WORSE THAN WHAT THEY PUT OUT THERE. That seems like the kind of extreme one
does hear on sports talk.
My best guess, which is worth nothing and won't change a thing, it's hard to imagine a player as passionate (imperfect, but passionate, scrappy, "hungry") as Butler has largely been in his NFL career, wouldn't have made a difference. Had Butler come out in, say, the 3rd or 4th quarter of a game where his teammates are getting TORCHED, I suspect he would've played with his hair on fire to make up for whatever crappy practice performance he had given that week, and I suspect that the Pats would've won their 7th this year. I think it's credible that he would've at least played HARD, if only to make up for...whatever inexcusable behavior/performance he exhibited - having a girl in his room after curfew. Smoking pot in his room - drinking - whatever the hell he did. There were approximately one trillion 3rd and 4th down conversions made by Philly in the second half of that game. You don't think Butler could've made a difference on ONE of them? Because one could have changed the outcome.
Obviously this is just wallowing and theorizing, but your post seems to be dumping on a fairly legitimate viewpoint, however tired you and others are of entertaining it.
EDIT: lots of typos and shit
