“I think it’s a feeling like I’ve got it all figured out. There’s nothing that can shock me anymore. There’s nothing I haven’t anticipated; so at that point, there is a calmness.”

A lot of people didn’t get to see Butler’s skills throughout the course of the season.

Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.

I don’t care about three years ago – I don’t care about two years ago. I don’t care about last year. The only thing I care about is this week.

A lot of times I find that people who are blessed with the most talent don’t ever develop that attitude, and the ones who aren’t blessed in that way are the most competitive and have the biggest heart.

Too often in life, something happens and we blame other people for us not being happy or satisfied or fulfilled. So the point is, we all have choices, and we make the choice to accept people or situations or to not accept situations.

As athletes, we think we’re heroes, but when you witness firsthand what I saw yesterday, you realize who the real heroes are.

If you don’t play to win don’t play at all.

You can’t go out and practice average on Wednesday, average on Thursday, okay on Friday and then expect to play well on Sunday.

There’s a lot of people who don’t like Tom Brady and I’m OK with that.

I would never do anything outside of the rules of play.

On the field, you come into sync with your teammates and coaches and together you achieve something that you could never do on your own.

To me, if you’re trying to impress a girl, get a date, they’re gonna like that more because you’re a confident guy. That’s what it comes down to.

The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.

To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it’s digging deep, it’s doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.

I’ve always been privileged to play for Coach Belichick, who I’ve always said is the best coach in the history of the league.

We all have experiences in our lives that change us, and we all learn from people, like my dad, but at the end of the day, it’s only us. And we’re only responsible to make ourselves happy.