Last year, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel conducted a pre-draft conference. This year, he won’t be.
Mike Reiss of ESPN reports that V.P. of player personnel Eliot Wolf will conduct the team’s pre-draft press conference on Monday at 2:00 p.m. ET.
From Reiss’s article: “Vrabel — who has been in the news this week, as The Athletic is reinvestigating the coverage of NFL reporter Dianna Russini and the nature of her relationship with him, sources familiar with the matter told ESPN — isn’t expected to address reporters until the draft.”
Teams often make coaches available on multiple occasions during draft weekend, often on each day of the draft.
It remains to be seen whether anyone even asks Vrabel about the situation the next time he speaks. There will be many other questions to ask regarding the team’s new players, and no one will want to be the one who asks the question Vrabel won’t want to answer.
Given the widespread interest in the story, outlets that ordinarily don’t cover the team may seek access to the next Vrabel press conference, whenever it is. Those folks, if any get in, will be far more willing to go there than the people who have to deal with Vrabel on a regular basis.
Then there’s the question of what he will say, if/when he’s asked about it. He may simply repeat his original statement to the New York Post: “These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. This doesn’t deserve any further response.”
As Michael Holley said on Friday’s PFT Live after I read that quote, “Nobody’s laughing.”
At some point within the next two weeks, we’ll see whether Vrabel will be doing any more talking on the situation. Or whether he’ll simply issue a revised statement in the coming days that ends with a claim that he will have nothing further to say about the matter. He could then refer to that statement if/when he’s ever asked about it during a press conference.
