Former Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler signed a 5 year, $61 million contract with the Tennessee Titans in free agency.

You’d think a guy with that kind of market value would have played in the Super Bowl, but no, he didn’t. Butler didn’t feature against the Eagles in SB 52 and never got an explanation why.

Butler spoke to the Boston Herald recently about that:

“I never got a reason,” Butler told the Herald. “I feel like this was the reason: I got kind of sick. I went to the hospital. They probably thought I was kind of late on the game plan; I wasn’t as locked in as I should be and could have been a matchup deal. It could have been anything. But Bill Belichick has been doing this for a very long time. He took a veteran out of Super Bowl XLIX (against the Seahawks) and put in a first-year rookie, and that turned out right, so you could never question his decision. It didn’t work out right (against the Eagles). It didn’t work out the best for me or him or the New England Patriots. But I can say he won more than he lost, so it is what it is. I always have love for New England, Bill Belichick, Mr. Kraft, all those guys. Life just goes on.”

Butler was benched for Eric Rowe in the Super Bowl, a game in which Nick Foles threw for 373 yards and 3 touchdowns.

He played 16 games in each of the past three seasons and made the famous interception that sealed the Patriots’ Super Bowl 49 victory.

There’s obviously more to the story here, but Bill Belichick never airs dirty laundry. If that’s the case with Butler, don’t expect anything different.

The corner posted this two days after the Super Bowl: