Malcolm Butler Proves Hard Work Pays Off
BOSTON (CBS) -- Malcolm Butler spent most of last season on the bench for the New England Patriots, but when the team needed him to step up in the biggest way possible, he was ready.
The Super Bowl XLIX hero is now the No. 1 corner on a team hoping to repeat as Super Bowl champs. He's had big shoes to fill following the offseason departure of Darrelle Revis, but it's a role that Butler has filled admirably. Tasked with containing the opposing team's top receiving threat on a week-to-week basis, Butler has had his ups and downs. But such is life of a corner in the NFL, and even when he has a bad play, Butler moves on quickly and focuses on the task at hand.
That's what it takes to be a great corner in the NFL, and throughout the season Butler has shown that he can play against the best of them. Last Sunday in New Jersey, Butler shut down the Giants' Odell Beckham Jr., and made a game-saving swat when the receiver came down with what could have been a winning score in the end zone.
Even when he's struggled, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has shown the utmost confidence that the 25-year-old can do his job. That confidence has been rewarded with Butler's stellar play as of late, and further fuels the second-year corner when he's on the field.
"Most definitely," he told WBZ-TV's Steve Burton in an interview for Patriots GameDay. "Not to brag or anything, but not too many corners travel in this league – they're just left or right. I travel to the [best receivers], and that shows that my teammates, coordinators and coaches have faith in me. That gives me more confidence, that they believe in me. I just go out there and try to lay it out every time."
Butler admits that at 5-foot-10, he's usually going against bigger and stronger receivers. But no matter the challenge on the other side of the field, Butler is going to play full-speed until the whistle blows. That was evident last Sunday, when Beckham came down with an Eli Manning pass in the end zone with the game on the line, only to have Butler chop it from his hands and fall incomplete.
The undrafted free agent was always taught to play until he hears a whistle, whether it's in practice or at a crucial moment of a game.
"You always finish. You have to check and see if he still has it, and if he's going to finish the play," he said. "I made a play like that in practice against Aaron Dobson during OTAs. He caught it and was coming down, I came through and knocked it down. At the end of the game [last week] he said, 'You did the same thing to me.' You just have to finish plays."
Butler remained humble after making that game-saving interception against the Seahawks last February in Arizona, and that mindset continues while he emerges as someone who will be known for more than just a single play. Like plays where he wasn't so successful this season, that play is in the past. He's out to write a new chapter in his career, one that he hopes ends with another confetti celebration -- this time in San Francisco.
But that doesn't mean everyone around him forgets about that interception. He was a hero when he returned home to Vicksburg, Mississippi, getting a parade and a key to the city. He related his return home to "Tom Brady walking into Walmart."
"It can be a little crazy at times," he said with a giant smile. "After the Super Bowl, I really didn't have time to myself. I was drained. For a couple of months I was telling myself that I knew who I was, but it took me a while to realize who I was – to get back to myself.
"I just had to calm down a little bit and let everything settle down," he admitted. "It's been a great journey so far. I had to work for it and I always believed in myself. Hard work pays off."
Butler is certainly proving that, one play at a time.
