Less than an hour before the start of the 2026 NFL Draft, Mike Vrabel stepped to the podium at team facility in Foxborough to address stepping away from the team for Day 3 of the NFL Draft. This comes as the head coach finds himself in the midst of a viral off-the-field scandal with former NFL reporter Dianna Russini, which led to her resignation from The Athletic.
Before this Thursday evening presser, Vrabel, 50, told ESPN just after midnight Thursday that he plans to seek counseling due to the scandal. In response to Vrabel’s decision to seek counseling and miss the final day of the draft, the Patriots mentioned in a statement that they “fully support Mike Vrabel’s decision to prioritize his family, as well as his own well-being.”
“I want to address the news regarding my current situation,” Vrabel began. “I understand that there are questions, but I take accountability for my actions and the actions that caused a distraction to the people that I care most about — my family, this football team, the organization, and our fans.
“My previous actions don’t meet the standard that I hold myself to. They don’t. What I believe is best for the two most important things in my life — my family and this football team — is for us to take the necessary steps to work together and to give them what I told them I’d give them, which is the best version of me. That’s what we’re gonna do, and that’s gonna start, that has started. That’ll continue this weekend and will continue for however long it takes for me to give them and complete that promise of giving them the best version of me possible. That’s what’s going to happen, and that’s what’s been happening.”
Vrabel went on to say that while he’ll be away tending to this matter, he has the utmost confidence in executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf executing the draft.
“Like I told you before that my priorities are my family in this football team and in that order,” Vrabel mentioned. “There’s a balance there that I am going to create and my family needs me this weekend and that’s where I’ll be, but I’m confident in the people that we have. I’m confident in the preparation. Thankful for Eliot and his staff that have prepared us for this night, for this weekend.
“I ask that somehow you can allow those players that we bring onto this football team, allow them the excitement and joy of recognizing a dream and starting a journey. I hope that you can do that, and again I’m focused on this team moving forward, and out of respect to my family, I won’t have any more comments or answers to touch on.”
Vrabel did take a handful of questions, including whether or not his absence from the team could extend beyond Day 3 of the draft.
“I can’t answer that,” he mentioned. “I can only say that whatever my family needs, that’s what I’m going to provide, but I also understand what’s needed from me here.”
The news of Vrabel briefly stepping away comes on the heels of more images being released with Russini. Just over two weeks ago, the New York Post’s Page Six published photos of Vrabel and Russini holding hands and hugging at a luxury hotel in Sedona, Arizona.
Initially, both Vrabel and Russini denied the insinuation of a romantic relationship, with the Patriots head coach telling Page Six it was a “completely innocent interaction, and any suggestion otherwise is laughable.”
However, as more images of the two emerged, Vrabel’s denial softened. He told reporters in a press conference earlier this week that he’s “had some difficult conversations with people that I care about, with my family, the organization, the coaches, the players.”
On April 14, Russini resigned from The Athletic as the outlet conducted an internal investigation into the matter.
On Wednesday, Page Six published additional photos of Vrabel and Russini eating breakfast together at the Arizona resort on March 28. On Thursday afternoon, Page Six released even more photos of the two, but this recent release was from March 11, 2020. Those images showed Vrabel and Russini sitting close together at a New York City bar and reportedly kissing.
Vrabel is coming off his first season as head coach of the Patriots, where he led the team to a 14-3 regular-season record. That saw New England win the AFC East, the conference, and appear in Super Bowl LX. Vrabel was named the 2025 NFL Coach of the Year.
