Rookies - particularly undrafted rookies from tiny schools - are not generally Super Bowl heroes.
Malcolm Butler has changed that whole line of thought. Not long ago, pushed outside football, he was working at fried chicken fast-food chain Popeyes, part time.
It was then he got the urge to redeem his life and future. That decision in 2010, ultimately, landed him in Super Bowl XLIX, and to a moment that will be chronicled as one of the most memorable in the game's history.
With the Seahawks in position to lock up Super Bowl XLIX on second-and-one, Seattle inexplicably elected to throw a pass instead of run Marshawn Lynch for the go-ahead score.
Right there to force the biggest of errors was Butler, the only player from the University of West Alabama to ever win a Super Bowl.
"I had a vision that I was going to make a big play, and it came true," Butler told NBC during the post-game celebration.
He said it came from preparation, and he knew the Seahawks would attempt "a pick route" against him and Brandon Browner. The pass to Ricardo Lockette will go down as one of the worst play calls in Super Bowl history. And Butler will go down as one of the biggest playmakers on the biggest stage.
"For a rookie to make a play like that in the Super Bowl and win us the game, it was unbelivable," said MVP Tom Brady, who won his fourth Super Bowl.
So, how did Butler get there?
In college, Butler played just two seasons of high school football, as a freshman and a senior, and because of academic trouble stayed in his home state of Mississippi at Hinds Community College.
The journey nearly came to an abrupt end when he was kicked out of school in his freshman year.
According to the Providence Journal, Butler was arrested on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, but that was not cited specifically for his dismissal. The next year, he was working at Popeyes when he began taking classes at Alcorn State, which birthed the career of the late Steve McNair.
Butler was in school, and missed the game. He pressed the reset button and returned to Hinds, played for a year, then moved on to West Alabama.
He played there for two years and then in May, Butler was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Patriots.
The rest, as they say, is history.