Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel has another life update for us. Here’s what he had to say at his second press conference of the week, on Wednesday evening:
As I said the other day, I promised my family, this organization and this team that I was going to give them the best version of me that I can possibly give them. In order to do so, I have committed to seeking counseling, starting this weekend. This is something that I have given a lot of thought to and is something I would advise a player to do if I was counseling them.
This comes a day after Vrabel announced that he’s had “difficult conversations” with his team and family following the publication of photographs showing him getting cozy with then–NFL insider Dianna Russini at an adults-only resort, which Vrabel called a “completely innocent interaction” and insisted that “any suggestion otherwise is laughable” in what remains his only direct comment on the photos.
This is all a bit silly. We’re clearly at the point now where both Russini (by resigning from her position at The Athletic) and Vrabel (by telling us all he’s getting therapy) have acknowledged that something more than innocent handholding between professional acquaintances was going down at that resort, but neither have said so directly. Russini’s way out of the scandal was clear—she committed a journalistic sin and had to resign over it—but Vrabel finds himself on shakier ground.
You get the sense that Vrabel and the Patriots have spent the last few weeks trying to divine exactly how mad people are at him, and for what. “Offseason infidelity with a reporter” is not something that carries a clear set of consequences for a coach, which is how we end up with Vrabel spending a good chunk of this week performing context-free penitence in front of the press. Even the timing of the trip to the therapist’s office—Vrabel won’t be leaving to get the help he apparently so desperately needs until the third day of the draft—suggests a sweaty strategy session in a conference room.
Perhaps Vrabel is doing us all a favor, though, and establishing a precedent for the rehabilitation of coaches or executives who get a little too familiar with reporters. Now that I think about it, am I not detecting some chemistry in Adam Schefter calling former Commanders president Bruce Allen “Mr. Editor” while sharing a story with him pre-publication? I guess we should get ready for Schefter’s resignation and for Allen to announce a trip to rehab.
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