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Earlier this month, photos of Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini ignited a firestorm of controversy within the world of professional football.
The images showed the New England Patriots head coach and the NFL journalist — both of whom are married to other people — hugging and holding hands at a resort in Arizona.
Russini resigned from her post at The Athletic shortly thereafter, publishing a lengthy statement in which she continued to deny any wrongdoing.
Vrabel did not address the issue at all until today, and as many have noted, he did not explicitly confirm or deny that his relationship with Russini was inappropriate.
“I’ve had some difficult conversations with people that I care about, with my family, the organization, the coaches, the players,” said Vrabel in a press conference ahead of Thursday’s NFL draft.
“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,” he continued, adding:
“We never want our actions to negatively affect the team. We never want to be the cause of a distraction. Those are comments and questions that I’ve answered for the team and with the team. We’ll keep those private and to ourselves.”
Vrabel went on to acknowledge that it would not be easy for reporters to simply move on from this story, especially as it resulted in one of their own losing her job.
“I know that that’s not easy for you, and I respect that, and I appreciate your efforts in doing so,” he said.
“I understand I could have addressed you guys sooner, but it was important to me to have a conversation with the players, which I did yesterday, very candidly, as we began our offseason program, which everyone is excited to be a part of.”
Vrabel concluded his remarks by stating that he would not be commenting on the situation further, as he does not want to overshadow the upcoming draft.
“I also don’t want to take away from the draft, the weekend of the draft,” Vrabel said.
“This is an important time for us, our organization and the excitement and the joy that those players are going to have that we bring onto our football team. They’re starting an amazing journey, one that should be celebrated as we welcome them onto our team.”
It does not appear that Vrabel will suffer any professional consequences as a result of his behavior, which may be why his comments differed in tone so greatly from Russini’s.
We will have further comments on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Mike Vrabel Breaks Silence on Dianna Russini Scandal: Did He Admit to Cheating? was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
