Still laughing, Mike Vrabel? Patriots coach torches credibility as scandal grows | Opinion
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Who’s that laughing now, Mike Vrabel?
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Like millions, dude, laughing at you as the scandal involving your interactions with Dianna Russini, former NFL reporter for The Athletic, seemingly gets more salacious by the hour.
What a pitiful saga.
When the initial bombshell dropped with The New York Post publishing photographs of Vrabel and Russini, captured so cozy at a luxury resort in Sedona, Arizona, before the NFL owners meeting in late March, the New England Patriots coach harumphed that any suggestion the pictures reflected more than an innocent interaction were “laughable.”
Then came another wave. And another. The latest photo drop by The Post, hours before the NFL draft began on Thursday, captured the two purportedly canoodling at a bar in New York – in 2020!
Now Vrabel is stepping away, for therapy and time with his family.
At the half-empty “news conference” staged on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium, someone asked Vrabel to explain how this progressed from “laughable” to a need for counseling. He had the nerve to trumpet the family theme in trying to explain away his initial statement.
“That’s a private, personal matter,” Vrabel said. “I don’t think that those comments…I think that was always an attempt to protect your family and I would never be dismissive.”
Yeah, right. “Dismissive” perfectly describes that first statement – which was hardly comical.
Now Vrabel is selling a different explanation, maintaining, “My previous actions don’t meet the standard that I hold myself to.”
What actions? Well, that’s personal and private.
Mike Vrabel press conference offers little clarity on absense
As I watched the NFL’s reigning Coach of the Year stumble along during his 7-minute session, talking about accountability and not wanting to be a distraction, I was not convinced that he wasn’t more sorry about getting caught engaging in “private” situations in “public” settings. Whatever may have happened between Vrabel and Russini – who, like Vrabel, is married to another person – is not public knowledge.
Yet Vrabel missing Day 3 of the NFL draft to spend time with his family is very public knowledge now. I’m guessing the getaway won’t happen in Sedona.
“My family needs me this weekend, and that’s where I’ll be,” said Vrabel, who never mentioned his wife, Jen, by name. They are parents to two sons.
It’s unclear how long Vrabel’s absence will be. But it doesn’t sound like the plan is for him to be away for an extended period. He didn’t deny a report that maintained he will be accessible to the Patriots, including team owner Robert Kraft and Eliot Wolf, who runs the draft as VP-personnel, during the third day of the draft. And the Patriots didn’t name a temporary interim. So, maybe they figure he’ll be back for the rookie minicamp.
Mike Vrabel not expected to face discipline from Patriots, NFL
Also apparent is that the NFL has no intent to review Vrabel’s actions under terms of the league’s personal conduct policy. Sure, as shady as it may seem, with no criminal allegations involved, it would be quite the precedent for the NFL to go down that path.
Still, while Vrabel remains on his job after a spectacular return to New England that culminated with the franchise getting back to the Super Bowl in his first season, his reputation will never fully recover from this.
Sure, he’s a sharp football mind and motivator of men. His game-management strategy is impeccable. Maybe he ultimately leads the Patriots to their first Super Bowl crown without Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
Yet this probably never goes away. Even if Vrabel goes on to a Hall of Fame coaching career, this episode sticks to his legacy in some form. I mean, Belichick, the future Hall of Famer, is undoubtedly paying the price for another black eye in Patriots history, Spygate. And at this rate, it would not be surprising if more layers to Vrabel’s saga are unveiled.
Now there’s a clip that someone posted on X, with Russini interviewing Vrabel, since his return to New England, and asking a question about his wife. In real time, it probably seemed so innocent. In retrospect, it has a cruel irony about it.
Vrabel is the coach who routinely opens his press conferences by calling on veteran female reporters to ask the first question. It has long struck me as a rather cool gesture, as Vrabel explained it as a nod to difficulties that women contend with in a male-dominated environment.
And now he’s embroiled in a controversy involving a female reporter, who by the way, resigned from her high-profile job while The Athletic, owned by The New York Times, conducts an investigation into her dealings with Vrabel. That’s ironic, too.
Turns out that Vrabel’s return to Foxborough to replace one-and-done Jerod Mayo was indeed too good to be true.
Which is no laughing matter.
Contact Bell at [email protected] or follow on X: @JarrettBell
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Vrabel torches credibility as Dianna Russini photo scandal grows