Former VHS star in Super Bowl with New England

One year ago, Malcolm Butler sat in his living room in Vicksburg and watched the Super Bowl, hoping that he’d get a chance to play in one some day.

Some day came a lot sooner than he ever could have dreamed.

Today, Butler and his New England Patriots teammates will take the field against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona. For the franchise, it’s a chance to win its first Super Bowl in a decade and cement the legacies of coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.

For the rookie cornerback Butler, however, it’s both the highlight of his young career and the culmination of an unforgettable year that has seen him go from undrafted free agent to playing for an NFL championship.

“There’s guys that have played for a long time that never played in a Super Bowl or even a conference championship game, so you’ve got to take advantage of the opportunity,” Butler said. “Once I get there it’ll probably hit me then. I’m just blessed to be in this position.”

A couple dozen players have gone from Vicksburg to the NFL during the league’s existence, but Butler will be just the third to play in the Super Bowl.

Former Vicksburg High star Richard Blackmore was the first, playing defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV in 1981. The second was Oakland Raiders linebacker Rod Coleman, who moved away from Vicksburg as a high school freshman. Coleman played in Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003.

Neither of those players took as long a road to football’s promised land as Butler.

Butler was kicked off the team at Hinds Community College during his freshman season following a run-in with campus police. He returned to Vicksburg and his job at Popeye’s Chicken, where he’d often see former friends and classmates while working the drive-thru window. Realizing he wanted something more from life, he vowed to pull himself up and straighten things out.

“I guess while I was there I had a plan and I had to stick to it. I was serving food and I didn’t want to do that,” Butler said. “It’s all about focusing and locking in in life. I prayed for it, and it turned out right.”

Butler enrolled in classes at Alcorn State University in the spring of 2011 and showed Hinds’ football coaches he’d changed enough to warrant a second chance. They welcomed him back to campus and the football program that fall. He rewarded their faith in him by excelling on and off the field, keeping his nose clean and earning All-State honors.

“I never gave up on him. He was a guy I always felt like he learned from his mistakes and moved forward,” Hinds head coach Gene Murphy said last summer. “He looked back over the steps he’d taken and knew he made some wrong ones. Some people have short memories and don’t remember where they went wrong. He has a long memory. He knew were he took the wrong step.”

Butler vowed never to take another wrong one, too. He went from Hinds to Division II West Alabama, where he was a two-time All-Gulf South Conference cornerback. He went undrafted last May, but got a free agent tryout with the Patriots. That led to a training camp invite, a stellar preseason, and a spot on the 53-man opening day roster.

A couple of days before he got the call from New England, Butler got one from the New York Jets wanting him to come there for a tryout. He went to New England instead. The Jets finished 4-12 this season and fired their coach. Butler and the Patriots went 12-4 and are in the Super Bowl.

Butler said he sometimes wondered what would have happened if he’d taken that invitation with the Jets, and was glad to wind up in New England. Not just because of the vast diference in each team’s season, but for the way the Patriots handle their business.

Belichick and his staff are famous for running a tight ship. Butler said the discipline and attention to detail required to play for the team have made him a better player and person.

“It grew me up more. More responsibility, better discipline, things like that. They just do things different around here. The Patriot way,” Butler said. “You’ve just got to come in every day and work. I’ve seen guys come in and go right back out. You have to stay on your ground, and stay on your P’s and Q’s.”

As any rookie might experience, Butler’s season has had its share of ups and downs.

He’s played in both of New England’s playoff victories, and during the regular season had five tackles in a Week 17 game against Buffalo. In Week 9 he had what he considers his best performance, four tackles and a pass defensed in a win over Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos. Butler was tested often in that Broncos game and earned rave reviews of his performance.

“He’s got a good burst, he’s got good speed, he’s very competitive on the ball, he’s got good instincts with ball skills,” Josh Boyer, the Patriots’ cornerbacks coach, said in an interview with The Boston Globe after the Broncos game. “A lot of it is him just learning the pro game, learning our system. There’s so many things that he has to learn, and really you can only do it by experience. You can’t just say, ‘All right, here’s everything you need to know, go out there and do it.’ There’s an experience thing that he’s working hard at, and that’s been the great thing, he’s continued to work hard at it.”

There were enough so-so performances, however, that Butler said it wasn’t difficult to stay grounded. He was inactive for four games and has been used primarily as a nickel back and on special teams. He’s typically listed as the team’s fourth cornerback on the depth chart behind well-established veterans like Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner.

Butler totaled 15 tackles in the regular season and didn’t have an interception, although he was credited with three pass defenses.

Although his roster spot seems secure, Butler said the uneven season has kept him from feeling like he’s established himself in the NFL — even if he walks out of University of Phoenix Stadium tonight as a Super Bowl champion.

“I’m far from that,” he said with a soft chuckle. “Even if anyone else thinks that, I’ve got a lot of learning to do. I’ve got to do it every game. Not every other game, every game. I’ve got to be consistent every game.”