Obviously, the talk of Sunday night and most of yesterday was why in the bluest of blue hells did Malcolm Butler NOT play in the Super Bowl, especially after it was apparent Rowe couldn't keep up with Alshon Jeffery. Throughout the night, there were rumors of the flu AND rumors of misconduct.
And it turns out that all of the above were true.
Butler missed a team-instated curfew, which tallied up some points against them. Couple that with the fact that he missed some practice time because he was battling the flu (it was such a battle that he didn't travel to Minnesota with the team -- they sent a private plane for him after they were already there since he was too sick to fly with them in the first place), and those seem like the reasons Belichick benched him.
And since his contract is up and he's a free agent, I'd be willing to bet that he's not going to be back in New England. Especially not after being quoted as saying the team and coaching staff gave up on him.