Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel Breaks Silence on Dianna Russini Scandal

Mike Vrabel, the New England Patriots head coach caught at the center of the photo scandal with NFL reporter Dianna Russini, broke his silence two weeks after the scandal broke.

“I understand I could have addressed you sooner, but it was important to me [that] I have a conversation with the players, which I did yesterday very candidly,” he said while addressing the press on Tuesday, April 21. “I don’t want to take away from our draft, the weekend of the draft. This is an important time for us.”

Vrabel, 50, went on to say that he had “some difficult conversations with people that I care about,” including his family, team and colleagues.

“Those have been positive and productive,” he added. “In order to be successful on and off the field, you have to make good decisions. That includes me, that starts with me. We never want our actions to negatively affect the team. We never want to be the cause of distraction.”

Earlier this month, photos of Vrabel and Russini, 43, relaxing at a luxury Sedona, Arizona, resort surfaced, showing the pair holding hands and embracing.

During the Tuesday press conference, Vrabel promised to be “the best version of [himself] going forward.”

Russini has since resigned from her role at The Athletic claiming, “I do so not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career.”

For his part, Vrabel told Page Six, who was first to release the photos, “These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. This doesn’t deserve any further response.”

As In Touch previously reported, Robert Kraft  — the owner of the New England Patriots — tried to stop the New York Post from publishing the photos of Vrabel and Russini.

“Robert Kraft intervened and had his honchos pressure The Post before they published and tried to kill the story,” a source exclusively told In Touch. “The Post gave Vrabel a longer time to respond than what is considered industry norms, and Kraft took advantage of that extended timeframe to put pressure on the reporter and the newspaper. A notorious crisis strategist made the call but was unsuccessful in neutering the story.”