NESN.com provided some excerpts of his upcoming interview with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick discussed scouting Malcom Butler. The full interview airs Thursday at 6 p.m. on SiriusXM channel 91. What I found fascinating was that Butler was on and off the roster the entire season. We constantly talk to our players about staying in the moment -- about preparing for your opportunity. Butler could have many times fold the tent up. First he wasn't drafted. Then he was invited to camp. Then there were a few games he was deactivated. But he obviously maintained the work ethic and attitude needed for Belichick to keep him around.
Here is a brief look at Coach K's conversation with Coach Belichick:
Krzyzewski asked Belichick, “How do you find Malcolm Butler? How is he in that play in the Super Bowl from where he was, where he came from?”
“You know, Mike, that’s a great question,” Belichick said. “When we scouted him at West Alabama the information on him wasn’t accurate and somehow or other his times and kind of athleticism got lost in the shuffle as sort of a slower corner that was just an OK athlete.
“After the draft we signed a lot of free agents, and we had really no spots on our roster, and we invited about 20 players who weren’t drafted in for a weekend workout. He was one of those players and in order to sign him to our roster, we had to release somebody that we had already scouted and put on our team. But we just thought that Malcolm would be able to be competitive based on his athleticism and ball skills and how quickly he picked things up in the couple days that he was with us.
“So we didn’t even have a roster spot, we created one. He came in and he played well in the spring, carried that over into training camp, ended up making the roster and was on and off the roster at different times during the year. There were a couple games he wasn’t active for. He kept competing, he kept getting better, and from West Alabama to Arizona and the Super Bowl is a long way. But he did it with a lot of hard work and he had an opportunity and he took advantage of it so it is really kind of a dream story for him and, you know, for all kids that play sports.”
