New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel stepped behind a microphone for the first time in weeks on Wednesday. The embattled head coach has been mired in a controversy surrounding his relationship with former The Athletic NFL reporter Dianna Russini.
Vrabel’s strategy was initially to deny that photos of him and Russini at an adults-only resort implied anything untoward, before eventually taking “accountability” for creating a “distraction” but never actually admitting what he was referring to. In subsequent conversations, he remained apologetic but vague and announced he’d miss the least valuable day of the NFL Draft to attend counseling and spend time with his family.
By all accounts, Vrabel and the Patriots have attempted to contain the controversy and put out the fire without explaining how it started in the first place.
“I think sometimes when you’re in positions of power, you feel like you can kind of set the ground rules and that everybody’s gonna follow the ground rules,” crisis management expert Jeff Hunt told Awful Announcing. “Which is kind of what they tried to do in that first ‘coming out party.’ And I think it sort of went to their heads just how much control they could have.”
In the intervening weeks, several photos and videos of Vrabel and Russini together over the last six years have filled in some gaps regarding their relationship to one another, though there are still massive empty spaces in the public understanding.
“Whenever the crisis first breaks, whenever it gets exposed, there’s a vacuum that gets created, and it’s a pretty big vacuum,” added Hunt, the author of Brand Under Fire. “And everybody needs to understand that it’s gonna get filled. It either gets filled by us or it gets filled by others. And I still don’t think they’ve achieved that.
“The look back for her is gonna be awful because they concealed, and even when they tried to come clean, they didn’t come clean. Until [a full accounting] happens, basically, it’s like an open wound that people just keep picking at.”
Vrabel had the opportunity to start filling in that vacuum on Wednesday, or at the very least acknowledge its existence. But instead, he ended up sticking to the playbook that he and the Patriots seem to think is working.
The coach spoke with the media for almost 19 minutes and was asked several questions about the situation that led him to step away from the final day of the NFL Draft. Each time, Vrabel offered a short answer devoid of much substance before quickly moving on to football-related answers.
“I mean, I can only tell you I’m gonna be there today, and I can’t tell you anything other than I’m gonna be out there today in full force,” Vrabel said when asked if he anticipated missing any more football activities this offseason. “And I mean that because, you know, who knows what’s gonna come up? I’m not even — you know, anything could happen. And so I’m gonna focus on today. But in the excitement that we’ve had and that we’ve built so far, and the conditioning that we’ve tried to incorporate into our practices and the weightlifting and all the things that are critical.”
Hunt says that Vrabel’s answers continue to withhold details and a descriptive apology that would allow for a real moving on from the issue.
“As much as he would like to move on, the wound remains open, and people will continue to pick at it,” Hunt said. “It’s more about what he didn’t say, if he truly wants to bring closure.”
Vrabel already miscalculated in the beginning when he tried to downplay the truth of the photos. And there’s a decent chance he’s miscalculating again, as Russini still hasn’t come clean with her version of events. Considering she’s the one who has faced professional and reputational consequences, she has an incentive to get ahead of what’s next, especially with an impending review of her work to be released by The Athletic.
“Knowing that The Athletic’s gonna do that independent review, she’d be smart to get ahead of that,” added Hunt. “I always say, everything’s discoverable in time, and so you have to ask yourself, do we want this narrative to be revealed for us, or do we want to reveal it on our terms?”
That’s a good question for Vrabel to ask himself as well, though it seems like he’s going to keep his head buried in the sand and hope for the best.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.