Dynasty refers to “something personal” between Bill Belichick and Malcolm Butler in Super Bowl LII

The last two episodes of Dynasty: New England Patriots It debuts Friday on Apple TV+. In the ninth episode of the series, some answers were given as to why Patriots coach Bill Belichick kept cornerback Malcolm Butler on the sideline for all of the defensive snaps in Super Bowl LII, which New England lost to the Eagles.

“What I've been told is there's something personal going on between Bill and Malcolm that has nothing to do with football,” says Patriots owner Robert Kraft. “I always felt that every decision Bill made was to put what was in the best interest of the team first, and put emotion aside. But with Malcolm, he did just the opposite.

Even if the specific cause of this personal problem is unknown, this is an indictment of the team owner. Belichick, in Kraft's opinion, allowed something unrelated to football to influence a football decision, to the detriment of the team.

Kraft knows more about the situation than others, including Butler.

“People still ask me to this day,” Butler said. “'Why didn't you play in the Super Bowl?'” 'I don't know, man, coach's decision.' “My team suffers when I know I can help. Like, not one rep. Not one rep.”

The fact that it was a 41-33 shootout makes the failure to use Butler ever more apparent.

“When you see how the game went, it's like, 'OK, man, we need him in there now,'” receiver Matthew Slater said. “Can we get him in there to stop the bleeding?”

Belichick kept the reason even from his own staff.

“I don't have any information on that to this day,” offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said.

During his own interview on the show, director Matthew Hamacek asked Belichick about Butler's situation.

“Matt, we talked about it,” Belichick said.

“I didn't ask you about that,” Hamacek replied.

Butler's failure to play confused and frustrated players. Consider this from receiver Danny Amendola, who didn't back down.

“I remember walking off the court that night, and I was so confused,” Amendola said. “That was the biggest game of our lives right now, and Malcolm's not on the field? That kind of pisses me off, even today. I mean, we played on our asses off. Tom threw for over 500 yards, which has never happened before in a Super Bowl. We “Out there literally putting our bodies on the line, our heads on the line, for our friends and our family and our teammates and not getting an explanation, like, I felt like we got cheated a little bit, honestly, and I don't feel bad saying that.”

Belichick clearly still feels bad for doing that. As Kraft says, Belichick allowed a non-football issue to influence a football decision that may have contributed significantly to the Patriots getting six wins instead of seven in the Super Bowl.

Tom Brady will have eight, along with a five-ring lead over Patrick Mahomes.