With Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl set, we called Malcolm Butler

SEATTLE – For the past 11 years, Seattle fans have frequently woken up in a cold sweat, reliving their worst sports nightmare: the night Malcolm Butler stole a Super Bowl from the Seahawks.

On Feb. 1, 2015, quarterback Russell Wilson had the Seahawks offense lined up at the 1-yard line in Glendale, Arizona, down by four points to Butler’s New England Patriots. Holding the ball with less than 30 seconds remaining in the 2015 Super Bowl, the Seahawks were steps away from securing back-to-back Lombardi Trophies as repeat NFL champions.

Then Butler showed up. You know the rest.

Instead of handing the ball off to running back Marshawn Lynch, Wilson targeted receiver Ricardo Lockette at the goal line – and Pats cornerback Butler snatched the pass away, ending the game with one of the most shocking plays in Super Bowl history.

With the Seahawks headed to their first Super Bowl since that night – facing the Patriots once again, this time at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 8 – we called Butler for his perspective.

Seahawks fans wish it all went differently. Butler respectfully disagrees with the blame game.

“(Wilson) threw the ball, and I caught it, but I felt like if the wide receiver would have ran the route harder, he would have given them another chance, but it didn’t happen,” Butler said Thursday by phone. “But I think (Wilson) made the right decision.”

In the moments following, Richard Sherman’s face morphed from disbelief to anguish as the Seahawks star watched from the sideline. His pain was felt by 12s across the Pacific Northwest. Longtime coach Pete Carroll’s decision to have Wilson throw the ball, and Butler’s interception, have left a bitter taste in the mouths of Seattleites ever since, including Sherman.

The aftermath, for Hawks fans, has been widespread. For the man opposite the line of scrimmage, the play was pretty simple.

“It’s situational football,” Butler said.

He remembers the moments before the interception. A few plays earlier, Butler thought he had broken up an attempted pass from Wilson to Jermaine Kearse, but Kearse somehow corralled the ball to make the catch, putting the Seahawks in the red zone.

“I said, ‘Man, if we lose this game, it’s my fault,’ ” Butler said of the acrobatic Kearse catch. “I made a great effort (to break up the pass), but things just happen sometimes.”

With the Patriots backed up to the goal line moments later, Butler said he tracked Wilson’s gaze and anticipated his strategy, a tactic he’d employed on the defensive side of the ball since his high school football days in Mississippi.

“You’ve got to take a shot at life,” he said Thursday. “I took my shot – just knowing situational football. If I would have dropped that ball, Malcolm Butler would not be in the picture.”

Butler says he celebrated with teammates during the Patriots’ championship parade in Boston days later, then presented a Grammy Award to Beck, signed brand deals with Gatorade and Adidas – and received a supersized gift from legendary quarterback Tom Brady: a red Chevrolet truck.

“I don’t call it a truck; it’s a trophy,” Butler said. “It’s a blessing from one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. It means a lot to me.”

After becoming a Super Bowl champion in his rookie season, Butler logged several seasons for the Patriots and the Tennessee Titans before retiring in 2024. By then, he was a two-time Super Bowl champion – his second ring was in 2017, when the Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons in the largest comeback in Super Bowl history – and a 2015 Pro Bowler. He is doubtlessly remembered most for his first NFL interception – at the 2015 Super Bowl.

He expected to hear from Boston media in the lead-up to this year’s Super Bowl; Seattle journalists, less so. He knows there’s no love lost for him in the Pacific Northwest.

“I’ve never been to Seattle,” he said this week. He now coaches football for St. Thomas High School in Houston.

Though he wasn’t expecting a Super Bowl rematch against the Seahawks, Butler felt confident his former team would soon be vying for the Lombardi Trophy again, singing the praises of Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel. Butler played for Vrabel during his time with the Titans.

“Obviously, (Vrabel) played under Bill Belichick, and Bill Belichick knows the game,” Butler said. “(Vrabel is) going to pass the game down to his players. You just don’t get a head-coaching job in the NFL if you’re not good like that.”