MINNEAPOLIS _ Malcolm Butler couldn't save the Patriots this time.
The cornerback who clinched Super Bowl XLIX with an interception on the goal line was suited up for Super Bowl LII, but he did not play a single defensive snap in what was likely his final game for the team. And the reason why remained a mystery shortly after the Patriots lost to the Eagles, 41-33.
"I ain't got nothing to say," Butler said to reporters in the Patriots' somber postgame locker room.
He apparently changed his mind on the way to the team bus.
"They gave up on me," he said, per ESPN Boston. "(Expletive), it is what it is ... I guess I wasn't playing good or they didn't feel comfortable. I don't know. But I could have changed that game."
Bill Belichick was similarly mum.
"We put the best players out there and the game plan out there that we thought would be the best tonight like we always do," the coach said. Asked if Butler was held out because of disciplinary reasons, Belichick responded, "no."
Butler did play a few snaps on special teams, but the secondary snaps went primarily to Stephon Gilmore, Eric Row and Johnson Bademosi.
The former Patriots on the Eagles were shocked by Butler's benching.
"Golly," Eagles DE Chris Long said when told that his former teammate did not play. "That's tough, man. He's a hell of a player."
Added Eagles running back LeGarrette Blount: "I don't know what that was about. He's a game-changing player and I hope he's OK."
