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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Revenge is in the eye of the beholder.
The Seattle Seahawks can finally settle a Super Bowl score with the New England Patriots, who snatched the Lombardi Trophy out of their beaks almost dozen years ago with one the most dramatic defensive stands in pro football history.
To this day, New England cornerback Malcolm Butler’s goal line interception in 2015 remains an open wound for Seattle fans. The Seahawks were just feet away from scoring a winning touchdown when Butler stepped in front of a Russell Wilson pass for an interception that sealed a 28-24 New England win.
The retired Butler has been floating around the Bay Area all week, as if he’s haunting Seattle as the ghost of Super Bowl past.
Butler, 35, said he’s reminded of that play every day because he still has the truck gifted to him by teammate Tom Brady. The all-time great quarterback won that Chevy for being named that year’s Super Bowl MVP.
“When I go take my trash out and stuff like that, I look at my Tom Brady truck and I’m like, ‘Man you did some amazing thing.’” Butler said in an interview posted Friday on the Patriots’ website. “It’s not a truck, it’s a trophy. Yeah, I still got it now.”
Present-day Seahawks appreciate the history of that play, but players and coaches insist they’re out to lift the Lombardi Trophy for themselves on Sunday — and not to heal any lasting Emerald City trauma.
“We haven’t talked about [the Butler pick] once,” Seattle coach Mike Macdonald said. “And it’s not due to lack of respect for our team and our history and what we’ve done in the past. But we’re really focused on this game.”
Seattle linebacker Patrick O’Connell, a Montana native, also downplayed the significance of a Super Bowl rematch with New England. But in the same breath, he said he could instantly recall where he watched that 2015 game, the weather that day and his postgame emotions before calling the Seahawks “we” as a childhood fan of his future employer.
“I was with one of my best friends,” O’Connell told NBC News this week. “We were in his basement [in Kalispell, Montana] watching and it was snowy and icy [outside].”
“I had to make sure I was driving home carefully because I was mad about the interception happening,” O’Connell joked.
“I would say for the fans, it’s probably a quote-unquote ‘revenge’ game. For us [current players], it’s so long ago, we’re not even thinking about that.”
Yakima, Washington, native and Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp was a little fuzzy about where he watched the famed Butler pick, but it still made a lasting impression.
“It was such an incredible play and moment in Super Bowl history,” he said. “It’s going to be remembered for a long time.”
