Malcolm Butler became a household name very quickly after Super Bowl XLIX.
The former New England Patriots cornerback sealed the team’s fourth Super Bowl win in dramatic fashion against the Seattle Seahawks. NBC Sports re-aired the game on Tuesday night and Butler joined the broadcast to relive the life-changing moment.
Like everyone else, he thought the Seahawks would’ve ran the ball.
“I thought they were going to run the ball, too,” Butler said, transcribed by NESN. “I learned a long time ago, if the quarterback is throwing the ball, I guess he’s going to favor the receiver or look at him or see what’s going on in the area and I just felt like (Russell) Wilson was just looking a little bit too much. And I think I just caught a little whiff of what he was going to do.
“So I just stared at my receiver and said if my receiver plants on the outside, I’m just going to go and just hope the ball is there. And when he planted, I took off. I just see the ball and the ball was coming so fast I didn’t know how to catch it. … It was just a great play. A good reaction. And it was just a great play, man.”
Not only was that one of New England’s most iconic plays — it’ll go down as one of the greatest Super Bowl moments ever. It also helped an undrafted cornerback earn a five-year, $61 million contract with the Tennessee Titans.
Butler will go down in Patriots history for that one.
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