Has any player come out of nowhere to grab football fame the way that Malcolm Butler did?

A rookie from West Alabama whose pro career had started as a tryout player at New England’s rookie minicamp, Butler came off the bench to win Super Bowl XLIX for the Patriots on Feb. 1, 2015.

Butler intercepted a pass at the goal line with 20 seconds left to secure New England’s 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL championship game for the 2014 season. Seattle was 1 yard away from back-to-back Super Bowl victories when Butler jumped Ricardo Lockette’s slant route to intercept quarterback Russell Wilson’s second-down pass.

A star was born. But it turned out Butler was an all-star, not a fluke.

The next season, he started every game for New England at cornerback and was chosen for the Pro Bowl. The season after that, Butler made second-team All-Pro and the Patriots won the Super Bowl again.

In 2017, New England was back in the Super Bowl for the third time in Butler’s four seasons.

During the 2017 NFL regular season, Butler played 1,037 defensive snaps, more than any of his teammates. He was on the field for 97.8 percent of New England’s defensive snaps. In the Patriots’ two playoff victories on the way to Super Bowl LII, Butler played all 141 of New England’s defensive snaps.

But in the Patriots’ 41-33 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 4, 2018, a game in which New England gave up 373 passing yards and three touchdown passes to quarterback Nick Foles, Butler’s action was limited to one special-teams play. He didn’t play any on defense.

Why Butler didn’t play has been a mystery, because the postgame answers left something to be desired.

“I ain’t got nothing to say,” Butler said in the locker room.

New England coach Bill Belichick called Butler’s playing time a coach’s decision.

“We put the best, the players out there and the game plan out there that we thought would be the best tonight like we always do,” Belichick said.

Belichick also answered “No” when asked if Butler had been benched for disciplinary reasons.

A new take on Butler’s benching emerged on Friday with the premiere of Episode 9 of Apple TV+’s series “Dynasty.” The series took a 10-part look at New England’s rise to six Super Bowl victories during a two-decade run of dominance with Belichick as coach and Tom Brady as quarterback.

The Super Bowl loss to the Eagles was covered in Episode 9, with the Butler mystery at the center.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft provided the new insight.

“What has been told to me is that there was something personal going on between Bill and Malcolm that was not football-related,” Kraft said. “I always felt that every decision Bill had made had been to put what was in the best interests of the team first and put emotion aside. But with Malcolm, he did just the opposite.”

But what the “personal” matter was isn’t explained.

In his interview for the series, Belichick was asked why Butler didn’t play by director Matt Hamachek.

“Yeah, Matt, we’ve talked about that,” Belichick said, prompting Hamachek to reply: “I didn’t ask you about it.” But he didn’t get an answer.

Butler also was interviewed for the series.

“I was very emotional, man,” Butler said. “I didn’t feel like I was being treated right because I didn’t find out until the game that I wasn’t going to play. People still ask me to this day: Why you didn’t play in the Super Bowl? I’m like, ‘I don’t know, man. Coach’s decision.’

“But the thing about it, I really don’t know. I really don’t. Just to, like, leave me watching my team suffer when I know I could help them, like not one rep? Not one rep.”

On his way to the team bus after the loss to Philadelphia, Butler had told ESPN: “They gave up on me. (Expletive). It is what it is. I don’t know what it was. I guess I wasn’t playing good or they didn’t feel comfortable. I don’t know. But I could have changed that game.”

Butler wasn’t the only one who felt that way as New England lost even though Brady threw for 505 yards and three touchdowns.

Matthew Slater played 16 seasons for the Patriots and made the Pro Bowl 10 times as New England’s special-teams ace. And while he said during a “Dynasty” interview “at the end of the day, we trust our coach,” even he questioned the wisdom of benching Butler.

“As players, I know we all felt strongly that Malcolm should have been out there,” Slater said. “Seeing how the game was transpiring, it was like, ‘Well, man, we kind of need him in there right now.’ I mean, can we get him in there to stop the bleeding?”

Slater’s response was tepid compared to the “Dynasty” remembrance of Danny Amendola, who had eight receptions for 152 yards in Super Bowl LII.

“I remember walking off the field that night, just really confused,” Amendola said. “That was the biggest game of our lives at the moment, and Malcolm’s not on the field? That (expletive) kind of pisses me off still today. I mean, we played our asses off. Tom threw for 500-plus yards, which in the Super Bowl had never been done. We’re out there literally putting our bodies on the line, our heads on the line for our friends, our family, our teammates. And to not get an explanation? Like, I felt like we got cheated a little bit, honestly, and I don’t feel bad saying that.”

Super Bowl LII was Butler’s last game with the Patriots. He signed a five-year, $61.5 million contract with the Tennessee Titans as an unrestricted free agent about six weeks after the game.

After three seasons and 10 interceptions in 42 games (including one in the playoffs) for Tennessee, Butler was released with two seasons remaining on his contract to slice $10.2 million off the Titans’ salary-cap obligations for the 2021 season.

The Arizona Cardinals signed Butler. But on Sept. 1, 2021, the Cardinals placed Butler on the reserve/retired list.

The next year, Butler was back – with the Patriots.

Butler signed a two-year contract with New England on March 23, 2022. But on Aug. 16, 2022, his comeback season ended when the Patriots put Butler on injured reserve with an undisclosed ailment, and New England released the cornerback with an injury settlement on Aug. 25, 2022.

During an appearance at a charitable event last week, Butler confirmed to Aaron Wilson of KPRC-TV in Houston that he is retired. He said he’ll probably have a memoir out next year.

“Just a coach’s decision,” Butler said when asked about his Super Bowl LII playing time. “Whenever I drop the book, I’ll put more detail in it. But for the most part, it was just coach’s decision.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.