Coach Mike Vrabel has moved past his offseason scandal inside the New England Patriots locker room, but the rest of the NFL has not. That assertion comes from a new, 2,500-word report on Vrabel’s eventful offseason — one that focused on his personal life — published by ESPN.com Monday morning.
Two days before the Patriots face the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL season opener, the new ESPN report details how Vrabel handled the fallout from what ESPN calls his “scandal” behind the scenes, as well as how far the aftershocks reach into NFL front offices and press rooms.
The New York Post published April photographs of Vrabel and then-Athletic NFL insider Dianna Russini hugging and holding hands at an adults-only Sedona, Arizona, resort. Both are married, but not to each other.
Russini stepped down from The Athletic within a week, a resignation confirmed by The Associated Press.
A newsroom review by the New York Times, which owns The Athletic, determined that Russini’s relationship with Vrabel breached disclosure standards — meaning that Russini should have told her bosses about it — but found no clear slant in her coverage, as reported by The New York Times.
Vrabel Planned to Defend Russini’s Reporting Ethics
The images “show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable,” Vrabel told Page Six after a New York Post reporter reached him on Easter Sunday. But a person who spoke with the coach said Vrabel had pushed for a stronger statement defending Russini’s journalistic ethics before settling on the version that minimized the photos, according to ESPN.com reporters Ben Strauss and Kalyn Kahler. Vrabel then skipped the third day of the NFL draft to seek counseling, he said.
Vrabel Told Patriots Players That He Created a Distraction
Roughly two weeks later, players and coaches held their first meeting since February’s Super Bowl loss to Seattle. Vrabel took responsibility for the distraction and the negative attention, offered no specifics about Russini and fielded no questions, according to the ESPN.com report.
“He feels like he did wrong by us,” running back Rhamondre Stevenson said, as quoted by ESPN. “None of the team was really even worried about specifics.”
“Ultimately football players care about respect, they care about accountability, and they care if you can make them better,” a team source told the reporters.
Mike Vrabel Scandal Changed How Women Cover the NFL
One woman who covers the league told ESPN.com that an unnamed assistant coach would not be seen meeting her for coffee, citing the optics in the wake of the Vrabel-Russini revelations. Multiple team personnel warned another female reporter that women would face a difficult time doing their jobs at next year’s scouting combine in March, because late-night conversations in bars and other social settings often result in the best information.
Four reporters said they weigh meetings, texts and phone-number requests more carefully. One alerts her editor beforehand in case a camera appears.
Mike Vrabel Fallout Left NFL Coaches Feeling Watched
“All the coaches are under surveillance right now, all the s*** with Vrabel,” an assistant coach from another club said, as quoted in the report. Another described coming home from a 16-hour day to his wife asking about the Vrabel-Russini story.
Front offices treated it as a case study. One executive said his club discussed handling a comparable crisis, and a former communications staffer said he would track where staffers met reporters.
Mike Vrabel Continues First-Question Ritual
Vrabel still gives the first news conference question to a veteran woman reporter, a habit he began in 2018 with The Associated Press’ Teresa Walker and continues with MassLive‘s Karen Guregian. Guregian used hers in April to ask about Russini’s resignation. He declined to answer.
“We’re privileged to have Mike as our head coach. No one is infallible,” owner Robert Kraft said on ESPN‘s “First Take” in July.
5 Key Revelations From ESPN’s New Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini Report