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[Teach]

Years ago, when I was teaching high-school history, I used to supplement my teachers pay by working as the school’s clock-operator at our basketball games. When the regular basketball season came to an end, our high school gym would serve as a host-site for post-season tournament play.

One incident in particular from my clock-operator days will always stand out; it reminds me, to a degree, of the recent benching of Patriots CB Malcolm Butler in last evening’s Superbowl.

As I recall, we were hosting two games, one at 7pm; the other, at 9:30 pm. The first game that evening almost wasn’t even played. It was about to be declared a forfeit. One of the teams hadn’t shown up; there was less than ten minutes to go before game-time.

Just then, the absent team did show up. They quickly changed into their uniforms. They came out on our gym floor with about one-minute to spare.

Yet, something very unusual happened in that game. The tardy team’s star player, their top point-getter (I’ll call him Jim) was not in the starting lineup. In fact, this future college and later professional basketball player, didn’t even get into the game. He was “benched”. His team lost.

But why. Why was this outstanding hoopster kept out of the game? I would learn later that this player had kept the entire team waiting because he was late in arriving at the school to catch the team bus.

Afterward, I spoke with our school’s athletic director. He lauded the coach for keeping this player out of the game. The A.D. said that the coach could have easily overlooked this player’s actions (my understanding was that there was no valid excuse for his tardiness) and put him in the lineup. His team would have more than likely won the game; but he didn’t. I believe the coach's action was a lesson for all of us.

Now for Malcolm Butler. Why didn’t he play, except on special teams (not one defensive snap)? He was an experienced cornerback. He was the Patriots Superbowl hero in their win over Seattle. What had he done (You could see that he was quite emotional during the singing of our “National Anthem”)? Was Butler in Bill Belichick’s “doghouse”? Was it because he skipped “the interview session” earlier in the week? Or, was their some other reason? I’m sure at some point the real reason will come out. All Butler would say is: “They gave up on me.”

Would Butler’s appearance in the defensive secondary have made a difference? I believe so. Although Butler’s replacement, Eric Rowe, made some decent plays, there was no question that the Eagles were going to take advantage of this little used cornerback - and they did.

As I think about it, was Butler guilty of some team transgression? Did he miss a flight? Was he late for a practice? Just like that young high school basketball player who was benched about 45 years ago.