Adam Butler – September 9, 2021
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Thursday, September 9, 2021
DL Adam Butler
(Is there much institutional knowledge of Patriots personnel that you can share with teammates to help them this week?) – “There’s nothing I can tell you about this team other than I know that they are tough from the guys that I know that are still there. They’re a tough team. All-in-all, they’re a new team. If I were to tell them anything, it could be wrong. No information is better than disinformation. That’s how I look at it.”
(Is that just also how Bill Belichick can switch things up very easily? Keep opponents on their toes so anything from the past could change easily?) – “To be honest, you just got to drown all that stuff out. We have to trust in us as a team. We have to trust that each other knows what to do. We have to trust that everybody is going to use great technique, play with good fundamentals and all the extra stuff that goes into it. If you try to guess and cloud your mind with a bunch of stuff, you could be wrong.”
(Just to question your theory, you have knowledge of when guys you’ve lined up against, practiced multiple times against, so that institutional knowledge doesn’t help you perform against them?) – “To some degree, I would say. It’s kind of like, when you’re dealing with a new team, it’s kind of like being a rookie again. You are trying to see what it feels like to go against something new. For me to expect them to be the same old team or the same old guys is unreasonable.”
(Have you ever seen the Gillette Stadium road locker room?) – “No. I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
(I wonder if it’s smaller than the home locker room.) – “That’s usually what happens. (laughter)”
(I know that DB Jason McCourty has told us that he’s gone against former teams before so this is really not a particularly emotional experience for him. Any sense of how this is going to be for you? Will it feel a little odd?) – “Well, he’s old as hell and I’m getting there (laughter). I would definitely say it’s another day of work.”
(The thing you took away from Head Coach Bill Belichick, everyone knows him from the outside as one of the best coaches of all time; but the thing you took away from your experience with him that you think will help you in your career was what?) – “I would say just not beating yourself. That’s something that I took from him that I take into everything that I do. Minimize mistakes basically. Don’t beat yourself. I think that applies to every team. It doesn’t just apply to that particular organization.”
(I disagree with you. A lot of people say that in theory, but most teams cannot do that. The Patriots are consistent, they don’t beat themselves. It’s harder to do than it is to say.) – “I didn’t say it wasn’t hard to do, I just said I agree with it.”
(What helps you guys get to that level? I’ve been covering the league for 14 years. The Patriots, you go to Foxborough and they’re not going to beat themselves, you have to beat them and I don’t know if you can say that about any other team.) – “Well, one of the keys to winning is that – is not beating yourself. At the end of every season, the best team – the best team, not the best individual – the best team is going to be the one who takes home the trophy and the ring. I think what you just said about every team not being able to do that, well you have to ask yourself what kind of chemistry do they have? Being a part of that organization, the teams that I was on, they had great chemistry. I’m not there now. I’m here trying to help this team establish the same kind of chemistry. That mindset of not beating yourself is a chemistry thing.”
(Since Head Coach Brian Flores’ arrival, the Patriots are the least penalized team in the NFL and the Dolphins are No. 2. How does that happen? Why does that happen?) – “I would say Coach ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores) and Coach (Bill) Belichick. I think it’s just their leadership. When you get behind that kind of leadership, that strong leadership, it establishes chemistry between your teammates. Once that chemistry is established and everybody gets behind it, that becomes the focus.”
(If someone commits a false start in practice, you run it again or what is it that they do? Players are going to make mistakes. They’re human. What is it you do to correct those mistakes to make sure they don’t happen on Sunday, that maybe they happen on Wednesday?) – “I can’t speak for anybody else but myself; but if I was to do that, I’d just shake it off and move on and try not to do it again. That’s all you can do. You can’t go back and change the play.”
(LB Brennan Scarlett was in here and incredibly is the only person who I have only met in my life who went to Stanford and Cal. He said that he looked it up and they are ranked higher than Notre Dame because TE Durham Smythe was in here. Where is Vanderbilt in terms of best academic institutions in America?) – “I’m always going to rock for mine. Vandy all day. I’m going to put us at No. 1.”
(Have you noticed that there’s actually a bunch of smart dudes in that locker room?) – “Yeah” (laughter).
(I guess that’s probably on purpose, right?) – “I mean, yeah. Probably.”
(How good do you feel about your room? It’s certainly a good group on paper with you and DT Christian Wilkins, DE Emmanuel Ogbah, DT Raekwon Davis, DT Zach Sieler and DT John Jenkins. How good could that collective six defensive linemen be?) – “I’m proud of all of those guys. Obviously, we haven’t played a regular season game together but I am looking forward to getting out there and showing them what I can do and I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do. I think as a unit, we definitely have a lot of potential but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
