Reliving Malcolm Butler’s interception and Patriots’ Super Bowl XLIX win on 10-year anniversary
The Patriots' dynasty remained alive after pulling out one of the most dramatic wins in Super Bowl history.
It might still be hard to believe 10 years later, but an undrafted rookie really made the play that saved the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX against the Seahawks.
Saturday marked the 10-year anniversary of Malcolm Butler’s interception at the goal line with 20 seconds remaining that secured the Patriots’ 28-24 victory over the Seahawks. The play highlighted arguably the biggest win in franchise history, giving them their fourth Super Bowl title as part of the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era.
It was also New England’s first Super Bowl win in 10 years. As questions loomed on whether Patriots’ dynasty was still alive earlier that season, the Seahawks were the reigning Super Bowl champs and one yard away from going back-to-back.
Butler’s interception seemingly changed the fate of two franchises for the foreseeable future as well. The Patriots made three more Super Bowl trips with Brady and Belichick, winning two of them to extend their dynasty to a near-two-decade stretch. The Seahawks, meanwhile, never made it back to the NFC Championship Game with Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll.
On the 10-year anniversary of a play that changed the course of NFL history, let’s re-live how they got there, how it happened, and what was said afterward.
The Patriots’ comeback
The opening half of Super Bowl XLIX wasn’t much different than most of the eight other Super Bowls the Patriots played in during their dynasty era. They and the Seahawks traded scores over the first two quarters, with Brady throwing a touchdown pass to Brandon LaFell after an early interception to give the Patriots a 7-0 lead.
Seattle finally got on the board when Marshawn Lynch rushed for a three-yard score to tie the game with just over two minutes left in the first half. New England responded, with Brady hitting Rob Gronkowski on a fade route for a 22-yard score to cap off a quick drive that gave the Patriots a 14-7 lead.
Even though there were only 31 seconds remaining in the half, that was enough time to allow the Seahawks to tie the game. Little-used Seahawks receiver Chris Matthews towered over Patriots corner Logan Ryan for an 11-yard touchdown with two seconds left before halftime. That grab marked one of Matthews’s four receptions for 109 yards he had in that game, with those grabs marking the first of his NFL career.
At the start of the second half, Matthews burned the Patriots again. He made a 45-yard catch over smaller Patriots corner Kyle Arrington that set the Seahawks up to take a 17-14 lead just minutes into the third.
Patriots cornerback Brandon Browner told reporters after the game that he “begged” to cover Matthews from that point. That switch worked as the 6-foot-4-inch Browner only allowed the 6-foot-5-inch Matthews to make one grab for nine yards.
But the Patriots had more adjustments to make. After the Seahawks took a 17-14 lead, Brady threw his second interception of the game when Bobby Wagner jumped in front of his pass to Gronkowski to help Seattle get the ball in New England territory.
“The second one, Bobby Wagner made a phenomenal play,” Brady told Sports Illustrated‘s Peter King of the interception shortly after the game. “He read my eyes. He got me. If I ever play those guys again, I will not lead Bobby Wagner anywhere with my eyes.”
The Seahawks took a 24-14 lead shortly after that. Wilson found Doug Baldwin for a three-yard touchdown pass, with Patriots corner Darrelle Revis bumping into a ref that allowed the Seahawks receiver to get open. After the play, Baldwin appeared to simulate defecation while Seahawks star corner Richard Sherman relished in Revis’s mistake on the sideline, adding tension to a game that had plenty.
Each team traded punts over the next four drives. Facing a third-and-14 from their own 28 with 10:58 remaining, it seemed like the Patriots needed a first down on that play in order to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive. Their dreams of winning already felt slim enough as no team to that point had come back from a 10-point deficit to win the Super Bowl.
Brady delivered, stepping up in the pocket to throw a dart to Julian Edelman for a 21-yard gain as the Patriots receiver took a punishing hit from Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor. Five plays later, the Patriots found themselves in the red zone. Brady recently revealed on “The Herd” that he and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels installed three red zone plays less than 48 hours before the game. Two of them resulted in touchdowns, with the first being the pass to LaFell and the second being his four-yard touchdown pass to Danny Amendola to make it a 24-21 game with just over seven minutes remaining.
The Patriots got the stop they needed on the ensuing Seahawks’ possession, forcing a three-and-out. Brady completed all eight of his passes on the following drive. The last one was a three-yard touchdown pass to Edelman, who faked an in-route before breaking outside to get open (while maybe getting away push off Seahawk corer Tharold Simon), to give the Patriots a 28-24 lead with 2:03 remaining.
New England actually ran that same play on the previous drive, with Brady overshooting Edelman. Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels told King that the decision to call the same play again “wasn’t very complicated.”
“After the last drive, I went to the sidelines and told Josh, ‘Josh, come back to that call. Please come back to that call,'” Brady told King. “I knew even before the call came in what it was going to be. I knew how it was going to play out. (Seahawks safety) Earl [Thomas] in same place. Simon in same spot. Only this time, they ended up blitzing, really a max blitz, creating one-on-one with Jules. He ran a great route. It’s a tough route to cover. The cornerback has no help. Looks like a slant. How do you not respect the coverage on the slant?’’
Seahawks nearly steal the game away
The Patriots were just over two minutes away from winning their fourth Super Bowl. But moments later, they were only one yard away from losing their third consecutive Super Bowl.
Like their two Super Bowl losses to the Giants before Super Bowl XLIX, the Patriots gave up a reception that might cause some to think some greater force was against them. After picking up a third-and-10 to move to the Patriots’ 38-yard line with 1:41 remaining, Wilson launched a deep ball down the sideline for Jermaine Kearse.
Butler got his hand on it, presumably knocking the pass down for an incompletion. Safety Duron Harmon leaped over Kearse in the midst of traffic, seemingly assuming that the pass was incomplete.
But on the turf, Kearse remained concentrated and juggled the ball while on his back to make the reception before getting knocked out of bounds at the Patriots’ 5-yard line with five seconds remaining.
It felt like the Patriots had just lost another Super Bowl.
“To see him catch it, it was devastating,” Butler told reporters of Kearse’s grab. “I came out after that play. I went to the sideline, I wasn’t feeling too well, but my teammates tried to cheer me up, they said I was going to make a play.”
“I thought of the other catches, David Tyree and Mario Manningham, 100 percent,” Edelman told Sports Illustrated‘s Greg Bishop for a story in 2023. “Your mind goes to dark spots.”
As everyone was trying to figure out how Kearse made that grab, the Seahawks weren’t ready to snap the ball on the ensuing play, forcing them to call a timeout. But on the next play, Seahawks star running back Marshawn Lynch moved his team to the doorstep of a title. He ran to the 1-yard line, with Patriots linebacker D’onta Hightower stopping him with 1:01 remaining.
“And then we run a Weak,” Lynch told Bishop of the play. “And, [expletive], I probably should have gotten in.”
Malcolm Butler makes the interception
What transpired over the 30-plus seconds on the Patriots’ sideline after Lynch’s run confused many watching the game, but proved to be genius. Instead of calling one of the Patriots’ two timeouts remaining to ensure they got the ball back with at least time for a Hail Mary, Belichick didn’t signal for time and remained stoic.
“I knew they only had one timeout left. When I looked [at the Seahawks’ sideline], something just didn’t look right,” Belichick said in the “Do Your Job” documentary covering the Super Bowl-winning season. “They started on. They started off. And now, however many seconds had gone by, I’m thinking, ‘Alright, I’m not going to take them off the hook here by taking the timeout. If they want to use it, let them use it.'”
Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia shared on “Do Your Job” that he wasn’t sure if the team was going to call a timeout, saying that Belichick ignored him when he asked. Eventually, Belichick told his assistants, “Yup, I got it,” as they were wondering if they weren’t going to call a timeout.
“I said, ‘No, just play goal line,'” Belichick said.
The goal line package that the Patriots’ used required three corners as the Seahawks brought on three wide receivers, with defensive assistant Brendan Daly remarking it was the first time they had to use such a package all season long.
Patriots cornerbacks coach Josh Boyer signaled to safeties coach Brian Flores to send Butler into the game as he had replaced Arrington as the nickel corner. The Seahawks lined up in 11 personnel, with two wide receivers (Kearse and Ricardo Lockette) lined up out wide on the strong side while Wilson operated out of shotgun.
Browner, a former Seahawks cornerback, and Butler were assigned those two receivers. Butler was initially supposed to cover Kearse on the inside, but Browner sensed what the Seahawks were going to call. He told Butler that he would take Kearse and jam him at the line of scrimmage.
After struggling with that play in practice earlier in the week, Butler was instructed to go over the top to make a play. He listened, running over Browner’s jam to get in front of Wilson’s pass to Lockette and come up with the interception that gave the Patriots the ball back at their 1-yard line with 20 seconds left.
The Patriots were jubilant, and Butler couldn’t hold back his emotions. The rookie corner was in tears as he went to the sideline, telling reporters after that he “was going to make a big play.”
“[Wilson] kept looking [toward the receivers], he kept his head still and just looked over there, so that gave me a clue,” Butler said. “I just knew they were going to throw. My instincts, I just went with it, just went with my mind and made the play.”
For many, the play was the first time that they had heard of Butler. Even Wilson wasn’t entirely sure of who made the grab on the interception.
“The guy just made a great play. I think it was Butler who made the catch, I’m not sure,” Wilson told reporters. “He kind of cut in front of it and made a play. I thought it was a touchdown, honestly. Unfortunate situation.”
The Seahawks were shocked by what just happened, collapsing with the Lombardi Trophy just a yard within grasp.
“Malcolm made the play of his life,” Kearse told Bishop. “They could have collided. The ball could have dropped, or bounced up. Anything could have happened. But he made the play. Nothing but respect for him.”
The aftermath
Carroll’s decision to pass and not run the ball with Lynch on second-and-goal was instantly second-guessed in real-time.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t believe the call,” Cris Collinsworth said on NBC’s broadcast.
“Me neither,” play-by-play man Al Michaels added.
Carroll explained to reporters that the Seahawks used the second-and-goal play to pass so they didn’t run the ball on four straight plays if it came down to it, hoping to leave the Patriots with no time remaining if they scored.
“We sent in our personnel, they sent in goal-line [and] it’s not the right matchup for us to run the football,” Carroll told reporters. “So on second down, we throw the ball really to kind of waste that play. If we score, we do. If we don’t, then we’ll run it on third and fourth down. Really, with no second thoughts or no hesitation in that at all.
“Unfortunately, with the play that we tried to execute, the guy makes a great play and jumps in front of the route and makes an incredible play that nobody would ever think he could do. Unfortunately, that changes the whole outcome.”
But the Seahawks’ locker room was in disbelief. Lynch didn’t speak to reporters after the game and Carroll’s own players were questioning his decision. Lynch later told Bishop that he was “so discombobulated” by Carroll’s play call that he actually lined up on the wrong side of the formation of Butler’s interception. Lynch was later heard in the locker room saying, “these mother[expletive]s robbed me,” according to Bishop.
Seahawks tight end Luke Willson told Barstool Sports in 2018 that a player broke his hand from hitting a locker so hard after the interception.
“People were demanding answers from coaches, in the moment. What sucked was there were no answers … What’re you going say?” Willson asked.
When the Seahawks arrived back in Seattle, Carroll “doubled down” on his call, a player told Bishop.
“What we had before was a belief system,” Lynch told Bishop. “The belief system was tarnished after that.”
As one potential dynasty ended, another was re-born. The Patriots were champions again, winning their first Super Bowl title in 10 years. Even though they had maintained a great deal of success, there were a great number of questions about whether they could reach the mountaintop after the “Spygate” scandal in 2007. Less than two weeks prior, an investigation began on the Patriots’ use of underinflated footballs as well.
But those questions were put to rest that night. Brady, who won Super Bowl MVP, gifted the Chevrolet Colorado he received that night to Butler as a thank you.
“Thank God for Malcolm Butler,” Brady said on the championship podium. “He saved the game for us.”
Brady also tied Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most Super Bowl wins for a quarterback that night. At 37, Brady knew he wasn’t finished yet.
“No, I’ve got a lot of football left,” Brady said when asked what the fourth title meant to his legacy.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com