Yes absolutely Butler's play was the best, most important play in NFL history. It wasn't luck. It was the perfect culmination of lots of practice, many hours of hard work just for that singular moment. It came right after one of the most ridiculous plays in Super Bowl history (the Kearse catch) after Butler himself had made a fantastic play even then (he did break up the pass after all, and then he had the ability to get Kearse out of bounds, prompting Collinsworth to say..."but they're not in...yet."). It even came a play after they tried to run Marshawn Lynch in (great stop by Hightower and Akers), and as BB made a great tactical decision to NOT call a time-out, which we now know greatly impacted the play. It stopped the Seahawks dynasty and launched a new Patriots one. It was everything you could ever ask for in a single play in terms of situation, coaching, impact, excitement, skill (I mean, watch it again - it's a huge collision...it's one thing for Butler to break it up...but he made the catch and held on even with the huge collision). Everything.
Greatest play in NFL history.
Totally agree with this. There's simply no single moment in my sports watching life that compares with the swing of the Butler play and the elation of that moment. Like others, I lost a few seconds there in utter joy and after recovering realized my friend and I had moved his couch 5-6 feet backward in celebration.
Anyway, I agree with others about SB 49 being the "greatest" Super Bowl for a combination of off-field and on-field drama.
The Carroll/Wilson/Lynch/Legion of Boom Seahawks were at the peak of their powers, while that season's Patriots came in with what I think of as the signature roster of the "2nd dynasty" era: healthy Gronk and Edelman, Amendola, Revis, Wilfork, Chandler Jones, Hightower, McCourty, Ninko, Chung in his first year back. The Deflategate nonsense was mainstream national news and may have raised the profile of the game -- I believe it still holds the record for largest average viewership in Super Bowl (TV?) history at 114 million as well as highest household rating and share.
In the game itself, the 1st half featured a red zone INT, four TD drives, and a thrilling (if infuriating) Seahawks drive right before halftime to tie it at 14-14. The 3rd quarter started to look like a boring Seahawks win, and then the 4th quarter was cinematic perfection, with two incredible Patriots TD drives and that final Seahawks drive, culminating, of course, in the greatest play in NFL history with 30 seconds remaining. Incredible.
Interestingly, the "greatest play" distinction is backed up by a (somewhat pseudoscientific)
attempt to assign Super Bowl win probability change here. That analysis lists the Top 5 as:
1) Butler INT (Pats/Seahawks 2014) (Note that it's almost double the value of any other individual plays)
2) Wide Right (Giants/Bills 1990)
3) Holmes 40-yard catch to get to Arizona 6 with 1:00 left (Steelers/Cards 2008) (I found this surprising -- the Steelers were already at the 50 with plenty of time left. Obviously the actual level of difficulty of the subsequent Holmes TD catch isn't included in the pure statistical probability shift)
4) Helmet Catch (Scottish Game, 2007)
5) Riggins 43-yard TD run on 4th & 1 with Washington trailing 17-13 (Washington/Dolphins, 1982)