Scott Zolak talked about this again on the radio. He tends to think the original BB story is what happened . . . that it was a football decision and nothing else, based on:
- Butler was sick and hospitalized with the flu between the AFCC and the SB.
- Butler was very weak and sluggish and looked bad and completely winded when he finally got back to practicing.
- Butler hadn't played particularly well in the past few games, and IIRC got beat for 2 TDs in 2 of the prior 3 games.
- Butler was a match up problem in the SB. His actual height has been rumored to be a little over 5'9". The Eagles WR were Jeffrey (6'3") and Agholor (6'0"), and apparently there was concern that Agholor was too quick and shifty to be covered by a sick and de-energized Butler.
- BB didn't like what he saw on the field from Butler in practice and had already developed a game plan to forge on either without him or only in sub packages.
- When BB didn't like what he saw, he stuck to the game plan and left Butler on the bench.
What's interesting is that a ton of people say that Butler sitting was the cause of the Eagles winning. However, other than a couple plays early on, Gilmore and Rowe both played pretty well and did not give up all that much.
Where NE got carved up was underneath and in the middle of the field. Clement and Ertz both had big games, and neither of those would have been Butler's responsibility. The biggest issues in the game were the lack of pressure on Foles, the inability of the linebackers to make a tackle, and the safeties inability to either help out in coverage or come up to stop the run. And Butler playing would have not changed any of those.
I've heard the argument 1,000 times that the Pats only needed one more stop and they would have won (certainly debatable but let's go with that). So maybe Butler may have made a play to get the Eagles to punt somewhere. But IMO there was a greater chance that somewhere else he DIDN'T make a play and got beat. He would have struggled against Jeffrey and if he was hampered by injury (slow, no stamina, reduced reaction time, etc.), he would have really had a hard time keeping up with Agholor.
The assumption was NE would have been fielding a 100% healthy Butler that played 98% of the team's snaps all year, but I highly doubt that was the player that was available on SB Sunday. The Eagles played well, the Patriots defense didn't show up, and the Eagles won. It happens.
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somebody was clearly drinking last night 
