At an August news conference ahead of Patriots training camp, head coach Mike Vrabel assumed his usual stance — arms on the lectern, blue vest over a white shirt — and deflected a question about counseling by pivoting to the offensive line. “I just walked into that meeting room and said, ‘How do we improve? How do we improve our combination blocks?'” he said, speaking for one minute and six seconds and never using the word “counseling,” according to ESPN.
Vrabel, who led New England from a 4-13 record to the Super Bowl in his first season coaching his former team, became the center of intense attention after the New York Post in April published photos of him and former Athletic reporter Dianna Russini together at an adults-only resort. The attention prompted Vrabel to step away from the team to seek counseling, according to ESPN.
ESPN reported that the offseason episode has had ripple effects across the league. League insiders, reporters, players and coaches told ESPN — many on the condition of anonymity — that interactions between men who work in the NFL and women who cover it have changed. One woman who covers the NFL said an assistant coach told her he would not want to be seen meeting with her because of the optics after the Vrabel story. Several women reporters and coaches said they are more cautious now when interacting with each other and expressed concern about the scouting combine, an event defined in part by late-night intermingling, according to ESPN.
The Patriots declined to make Vrabel available for an interview and declined to comment for the story. Multiple Patriots personnel and players also declined to discuss how they navigated the offseason; the team made two players available — running back Rhamondre Stevenson and safety Kevin Byard. “We just tried to move on as fast as we can from that,” Stevenson said, according to ESPN. At training camp, a coach’s wife told ESPN, “I love chatting… if it were any other topic,” and added, “We love this team, and the Pats stick together.”
ESPN reported additional details about the initial reporting. Vrabel received a call from a New York Post reporter on Easter Sunday about the photos, according to a person with knowledge of the call. He told Page Six the photos “show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable.” According to a person who spoke to Vrabel at the time, he had wanted to issue a stronger statement defending Russini’s reporting ethics but settled on downplaying the photos. Russini resigned from The Athletic less than a week later; The Athletic ultimately found that Russini’s relationship with Vrabel violated its newsroom
