The New England Patriots called an audible on Tuesday morning. Instead of a pair of players addressing the media, as previously scheduled, head coach Mike Vrabel was to make a short statement and subsequently answer football-related questions.
That presser was his first public appearance since photos of him and NFL reporter Dianna Russini at an adults-only hotel in Arizona emerged. Even though the parties involved have claimed that the pictures were lacking context, they did kick off a wave of speculation
about their relationship with each other and ultimately led to Russini resigning from her position with The Athletic.
On Tuesday, Vrabel provided a statement addressing the matter, one day after speaking to his team on the first day of the Patriots’ offseason workout program.
“It was important to me to have a conversation with the players, which I did yesterday very candidly,” Vrabel said. “We begin our offseason program which everyone is excited to be a part of.”
Vrabel was originally scheduled not to address the media until the draft, but he said he wanted to move his availability up as to not take away from the event itself.
“I’ve had some difficult conversations with people that I care about — my family, the organization, coaches and players,” he said. “Those have been positive and productive. We believe 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 affect the team. We never want to be the cause of a distraction.
“There were some comments and questions that I answered for the team and with the team. We’ll keep those private and to ourselves. I care deeply about this football team and I’m excited to coach them. I also know that I’m going to attack each day with humility and focus, and what I can promise you is that my family, this organization, the team, the staff, the coaches, everybody, our fans, most importantly, will get the best version of me going forward. That’s what I know and I’m excited to do that.”
Vrabel did answer follow-up questions, but mainly referred back to his initial statement.
