Super Bowl Hero Malcolm Butler: Where is West Alabama?
By Jerry Levi
Throw it all out. All of it. All of the 6 hours of Super Bowl pregame shows and former NFL greats turned announcers talking about what’s going to happen in the Super Bowl. Nobody can script what happened on Sunday night. Unless you can find footage of someone saying that a rookie from West Alabama University was going to make the greatest interception in the history of the Super Bowl, it just didn’t happen. But it did. Malcolm Butler will go down as ‘The Hero of Super Bowl XLIX‘ for the ages. Just a few plays before he could have been the goat of the Super Bowl, having been on coverage of Jermaine Kearse’s miraculous on his back catch that set up 1st and goal with less than a minute to go. But not this day. It was a miracle that Malcolm Butler was even at this game.
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West Alabama University is located in Livingston, Alabama with a student body base of over 5,000. The UWA Tigers, as they’re known, play in the Gulf South Conference in Division 2. Their notable alumni include Jeff Branson, Major League baseball infielder. Lifetime .246 average, 34 homeruns. Doesn’t ring a bell? Andrew Kilgore, US Ambassador to Qatar? Okay what about Charles Martin, who was a defensive lineman in the NFL back in the 80’s? His claim to fame is that he knocked out Jim McMahon of the Chicago Bears for the entire season for a late hit about 30 years ago. Still nothing? Okay what about an undrafted rookie named Malcolm Butler who only played football in his freshman and senior year of high school? By the way this Malcolm Butler fella also fell out of sorts at a place called Hinds Community College. Got kicked off the team there but got invited back, did his homework, and eventually transferred to West Alabama. During that time Malcolm Butler also worked part time jobs, never complained about the situation he was in, but always did his homework, studying film to get the edge.
And so on 2nd and goal in the final 20 seconds of the Super Bowl, Malcolm Butler had seen this formation before in the film room. This undrafted rookie from West Alabama that no one took a chance on, with the exception of the New England Patriots. A Malcolm Butler who had mopped floors and had closed the Popeye’s Chicken in Vicksburg, Mississippi on long nights. A Malcolm Butler who had been kicked off of Hinds Community College football team but was reinstated to even go to West Alabama. Heard of him yet? Chances are you’ll never forget Malcolm Butler or West Alabama University. All Malcolm Butler did on Super Bowl Sunday was his homework and made a break for the ball even before Russell Wilson threw it. He’d seen it before and because of it, we’ll see a lot more of Malcolm Butler before his career is through. Do your homework and there’s always a chance at greatness…
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