Patriots safety Devin McCourty said earlier this week that “we all knew [Malcolm Butler] wasn’t starting all week.” It remains unclear who “we” is, but defensive tackle Alan Branch said Tuesday he had no idea the Patriots had benched Butler for the Super Bowl.
“I didn’t know anything, honestly,” Branch said on WEEI during an appearance promoting the No Appetite For Bullying initiative. “On our team, gossip doesn’t travel.”
Butler played 97.8 percent of the Patriots’ defensive snaps during the regular season and 100 percent of the snaps during the first two postseason games. He played one snap of special teams in the Super Bowl.
Eric Rowe said in postgame interviews that he found out he was starting just before kickoff. Branch didn’t know until after the game started.
“I noticed [Butler] wasn’t in the game, but then again you never know the reason for what is going on at certain times in that organization, especially,” said Branch, who was one of the team’s inactives for the Super Bowl. “It’s neither here nor there.”
