A Vicksburg, Miss. native and the product of Hinds Community College and West Alabama University, Malcolm Butler had an opportunity to deliver the Lombardi Trophy for the New England Patriots.

So he seized it.

With about 25 seconds left in the game, the Patriots were clinging to a four-point lead in Super Bowl 49 with the Seattle Seahawks on their 1-yard line. If they could have moved the ball that one yard, there would have been a different Super Bowl winner.

Butler was in the previous play as well, the one that put the Seahawks into the red zone. The rookie tipped a pass intended for receiver Jermaine Kearse. He really played a tough one-on-one matchup as well as he could have. In fact, Butler's inexperience was probably why quarterback Russell Wilson targeted Kearse.

"To see him catch it, it was devastating," Butler said after the game, according to the Boston Globe. "I came out after that play. I went to the sideline, I wasn't feeling too well, but my teammates tried to cheer me up, they said I was going to make a play."

According the Providence Journal, West Alabama took note of Butler after his 2011 season at Hinds. Though he had not played the previous season because he flunked out. He worked at a Popeye's and took classes at Alcorn State.

Butler did not have the grades to play at a major Division I program, so West Alabama was his big break. Like many standout DII players, Butler was fortunate to be signed as an undrafted free agent.

"We call him 'Scrap' because the first time we saw him he was just so scrappy and he found himself around the ball all the time," defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said. "I think that was one of the main reasons he was in the game. Throughout the course of the year, he shows up at practice and he makes plays."

Butler almost won the Super Bowl defending Kearse, had the receiver not pulled off that improbable juggling act while lying on his back to secure the catch.

From the one yard line, Wilson once again targeted Butler. With Darrelle Revis on the other side of the field and Brandon Browner engaged in a pick set by Kearse, Ricardo Lockette was Butler's man.

As Pro Football Talk's Rob Guerrera noted on Twitter, Wilson believed his team had executed the play. When he brought his arm back to throw the pass, Butler was nearly four yards from Lockette. Unknown to Wilson, the rookie defensive back had already diagnosed the play.