FOXBORO -- Malcolm Butler's life changed after Super Bowl XLIX. He was feted in Disneyland, and he presented at the Grammy Awards. He was thrown a parade in his hometown in Mississippi, and he was counted on by Patriots fans to help replace Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner.
It was, he's admitted, a whirlwind.
But now more than six months later, the product of Division 2 West Alabama is still very much the same person he was before he made the play that earned the Patriots their fourth Super Bowl title, according to coach Bill Belichick.
"I think Malcolm overall has had a real good offseason," Belichick told WEEI's Dale and Holley Show with Dale Arnold, Andy Hart and Jerry Thornton. "I think he, as much as any player that I’ve been around, has really not changed very much from Year One to Year Two. I think he’s maintained his level of humility, his lifestyle, his sense of purpose. In a lot of ways, he acts like a rookie out there, like he’s starting all over again. Which, in a lot of ways, that’s the way it is for all of us. We’re all starting all over again."
While there is plenty of uncertainty at the corner position for the Patriots, and while the defensive backfield has seen plenty of shakeup in recent practices, Butler has been a fixture on the outside. For weeks he has taken on the team's top pass-catchers, including Julian Edelman and Aaron Dobson. With both of those players injured and out of practice on Monday, Butler checked tight end Rob Gronkowski at one point, sacrificing a few inches and more than a few pounds in that matchup.
In his second pro season, Butler seems unafraid. He has challenged quarterback Tom Brady to throw his way, and when he has broken up a pass, he has not been afraid to celebrate briefly. Those are things he may have been reluctant to do last year when he was fighting to last as long as possible during training camp. He's more confident now.
But still, when he speaks to reporters -- and when coaches and teammates speak about him -- it's apparent that his demeanor and attitude aren't all that different from what he brought to the team as a rookie.
New England Patriots
"I think Malcolm has had a real good perspective and has worked hard," Belichick said. "He’s had a good camp and I think he’ll be ready to go."
Here are a few more of Belichick's best sound bites from his WEEI interview . . .
On defending the team's Super Bowl title in 2015: "We left all that behind. We’re not really defending anything. Nobody can take anything away from us from the 2014 season. It will be for this group, however it unfolds to write our own chapter for this year. Whether last year was a good year, it doesn’t really make a difference.
"It’s really where we are this year and everybody’s individual role in that and how it comes together as a unit and as a team. We don’t really talk about last year. It doesn’t really -- we’ve had good years and bad years and I don’t think next year really impacts those."
On how the play calls change depending on which quarterback is in the game: "It’s not a different playbook altogether. We can barely get one playbook right . . . Again, we’re at a very fundamental teaching phase where everyone does everything. All the players learn all the plays and as we go into an individual game we narrow that down to what we feel like would work best against that team and also understand there are only so many plays in the game. It’s not like you need seven two-point plays per game. You need one maybe two.
"All those things get progressively narrowed down so the game is a lot smaller than what the training camp volume is. At this point that’s the process we’re in. Whatever players we’re playing with we would look at those skills and what our scheme are and what our options are and do what we think is best. That might be the same as another player. That might be different than another player. That’s part of the training camp experience."