Malcolm Butler, Super Bowl XLIX Champion

We continue inside of Radio Row getting you set for Super Bowl 57 in the downtown Phoenix Convention Center. And now joining us is Super Bowl legend, Super Bowl royalty, and a man that made me jump up and down like a fat kid in a candy store and lose my mind when he picked off Russell Wilson to get the Patriots their fourth Super Bowl championship.

That is the great, and I mean the great, Malcolm Butler. Malcolm, how you doing? I'm doing well.

I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on. Well, I appreciate you coming on. I appreciate you for a lot of things, but I got to show you this moment.

I'm going to like fanboy out here. I talked to David Tyree earlier in the week, so he provided a bad memory for me, so now we get to relive a positive moment. I want to show this to Devin McCourty. He loved it. He said, you got to show this to Malcolm Butler one day. This is a lot of male testosterone going nuts.

This is my family and all of us when you picked off the football. So there we go. We're going crazy. We couldn't believe it.

Ask me and my cousin. We're jumping up and down. This is nuts. And then wait for it. We're rolling on the floor together. What you did, take me through it because it changed your life. I remember the emotion you showed right in the moment, so it hit you right away. Relive the play. First of all, I was preparing like I was going to play. I had some great players in front of me, but that still didn't stop me from preparing like I was going to play. At halftime, Belichick told me that I'm going in and it was time to play man to man. It was time for pressure. It was time to get back in the game. And the only thing I had to do was play man to man, and I was good at playing man to man. I was out there making some plays. I made some tackles. That wasn't the only play I made. But anyway, we was going down the field, man to man, man cursed. Obviously, I break up the pass and the pass lands into his hands, so I'm thinking the game is over.

And I'm like, this is my fault. But I get another opportunity to get back in the game and try to make another play. And when I get in the game, I see the play that we ran at practice. In my head, I'm like, they can't be throwing this ball. But they threw it. And if they run the ball, I'm a cornerback. The offense shouldn't call it a sweep. You should run the ball directly in the A gap. Especially with Lynch.

Yeah, somewhere around there. But for some reason, I was just looking at Lynch. I was looking at Wilson, and he just kept looking over there.

He kept looking. I know I seen him motion somebody across. I think it was Ball. But I told myself, if this guy put his foot in the ground, I'm driving on this ball. Because I know what play coming.

Because we already went over in practice. I think it was Lockett? Yeah, Lockett. He jabbed to the right. Browner made a heck of a play.

Yeah, yeah. Shout out to Browner, man. Browner jammed the guy up, gave me a clear path to get to the ball.

Man, he broke. And I just took off and ran to the ball. I don't know how I caught that ball, but I caught it. It was coming.

You know how something coming your way so fast, and you don't know how to catch it? I don't know if I was just living in the moment or whatever. I just made an unbelievable play, man. I just went with my gut.

I went with my gut. And I'll tell you, when I think it was Hightower, one of your own teammates, they shove you down. I thought it was a fumble. I didn't realize that until after the game. Yeah, Hightower I almost gripped the ball from. I told him that too. I'm like, we got a smart player, Malcolm Butler.

He knows when to go down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, indeed.

Yes, indeed. So that obviously changed your life, but there is then more years that you have to go through and play. That play is always going to define you, but what did you want to prove after that in the NFL the next years after that?

Man, I wanted to prove what I've been proving. I've been making plays at practice. I've been making plays during the game if we blow somebody out. People just didn't know because I was the last cornerback on the team, but I was making plays all that trying to count. But after that play, I hit a room and said, yeah, you'll want to hit one.

He won't be in the NFL long. Man, I had grit. I had a chip on my shoulder. I came back and showed everyone that I was a good elite cornerback and I had a good run, man. I had something to prove, man.

My uncle's from Framingham, Massachusetts, so he would kill me if I didn't ask you this question. What happened in Super Bowl LII? Can we just get the truth? I usually don't talk about it, man. It's a documentary coming out, man. It'll tell you more about it, but it was just a coaching decision, man. Like I always say, just a coaching decision. So all these rumors that you did something wrong leading up to it is false?

Yeah, I think so, man. I'm a disciplined guy, man. I ain't perfect, but I would not go to no concert. I wouldn't do certain things that people say.

Somebody got to say something else dumb, but nobody say anything. I know that you got hurt this year, but what was that like briefly coming back to New England? Man, it was great to come back. That's where most of my fans at. It was great.

Nothing changed around there, especially not being a Belichick or the weather. That was devastating to me. I was trying to get back and finish up on my career, on my back end. Unfortunately, I got hurt, but I'm still working out and training. I recovered. Not deciding if I'm going to go back or not right now, but I'm still working out, training with kids, going back to school, spending time with my kids, just doing those little things.

Malcolm Butler here with us. Well, one big thing changed in New England. Brady's no longer there, and now he's retired.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought he was going to go back up there, but yeah, he was on the beach or something the other day, right? Yeah, and now he has that boxer photo that's been making the rounds. I think that's officially retired. Brady's a great smack talker, but once you post a photo of you and your boxers with your hand over your junk, I think you can't come back from that. Yeah, he done, man. He done.

What was that like for you? Because he gave you the car, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He gave me the Colorado 2015. I still have it. I still have it. You drive it a lot?

Some what, man. That's more like a trophy. I probably got like 9,000 miles on it, so I'm taking care of it. It's funny. They give everyone the car, and you get a Super Bowl MVP trophy or you get a ring or something.

You put that in your mantle, you got to get a big-ass garage to fit that car in there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Most definitely.

It most definitely helped me get one. Malcolm Butler here with us. How do you look back at that experience that night? Because Brady, I'll never forget, he's like, Malcolm, Malcolm, are you kidding me?

Man, that was amazing. I was shocked myself for Brady to come up and say things like that to me, but to be honest, Brady already, he used to tell me that I was a good player when I was a rookie. Before I even made that Super Bowl catch, he used to tell me at practice, he was like, Malcolm, you are so freaking good.

He'll tell me stuff like that. He gave me confidence. He gave me something extra that made me fight more. He made me feel like I belonged in the NFL, even though I felt that way.

He just gave me more confidence. Who do you like in the game this upcoming weekend? Oh, man, that's tough, man.

That's tough, that's tough, that's tough. If the Chiefs defense play good, they'll win. So I'm going to go with the Chiefs, man. You know I got a lot of Mississippi cats on the Eagles.

I'm going to go with the Chiefs. What advice would you give to the Eagles, though, going up against Patrick Mahomes? You got to put pressure on him. You can't let him be out there being Houdini, running all around, throwing behind a back pass. You just got to put pressure on him.

You got to put pressure on him ASAP. So you're here today on behalf of Mueller Sports Medicine, and to learn more and to buy your own Revive, visit MuellerSportsMed.com and use discount code Radio2023. Tell me about the fine work you're doing with the great company. Oh, man, I'm doing great things with them, man. I actually got my Revive recovery boots, man. I'm at home working out, you know, recovering, man. It's not just for athletes.

It's for firefighters, nurses. You know, you have a long day at work, man. Them legs hurt you, man.

All you got to do is put them boots on, and you'll be ready to go the next day, man. Last thing I'll ask you, just going back to the Super Bowl LII conversation, when you said it was a coaching decision, was that hard for you to process? Because that's in the big game.

Everyone's watching you. Yeah, it was, man. You know, like, it really didn't bother me until probably like two years.

Well, I'll tell you, this year. You know, I told you it was a documentary coming out and things like that. That's when it really touched me, when I really had to open up and just talk about it, man. But, yeah, it bothered me a little bit, but I moved on.

You know, I knew it was coming to the end during that game, before that game. So, yeah, it is what it is. And, you know, I got nothing but respect for Bill Belichick.

If I did so much wrong, like the media said, I wouldn't be allowed to come back to New England. So, yes, sir. Well, thank you, because it's an honor to meet you. You provided me one of the greatest sports memories of my life, and it was a heck of a story.

That's all you could say. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me on, man.

Join us now on the Odyssey app, wherever you get your podcasts. Evan Matt talks with Matt Hardy. There's nothing like a wrestling fan, you know, for better or for worse. How do you handle that, though? We're talking about people talking about your family, what they don't know about your family, or your brother, or you... How does one handle that from a day-to-day basis? Something I joke about with the Young Bucks all the time. I said, if you would Vanity Search Matt Hardy on Twitter, I said, after you got through a hundred replies, you'd want to quit the business and never be seen again.

It's just, you just learn to deal with it. You know what I mean? It's the Kick Rocks! Wrestling Podcast with Evan T. Mack. Subscribe now on the Odyssey app, wherever you get your podcasts.