{"id":874134,"date":"2026-04-25T05:25:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874134\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T05:25:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:25:02","slug":"patriots-back-coach-vrabels-leadership-as-new-photos-with-nfl-reporter-russini-emerge-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874134\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots back coach Vrabel\u2019s \u2018leadership\u2019 as new photos with NFL reporter Russini emerge | NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New England Patriots<\/a> have given their backing to Mike Vrabel as new photos of their head coach and NFL reporter Dianna Russini emerged on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Russini resigned from her post<\/a> at the Athletic last week after the New York Post published photos of her and Vrabel embracing and holding hands at an Arizona resort. The pair are married to different people and have said their relationship is platonic. On Wednesday, Vrabel said he will miss day three<\/a> of the NFL draft on Saturday to undergo counseling in the fallout from the controversy. He made an appearance before Thursday\u2019s draft where he said \u201cmy priorities are my family and this football team. In that order. … My family needs me this weekend, and that\u2019s where I\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, new photos were published of Russini and Vrabel together. Page Six published photos<\/a> of the pair at a New York bar in 2020, while TMZ released images of them<\/a> at a Mississippi casino in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Patriots made it clear they were standing behind their coach in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New England Patriots fully support Mike Vrabel\u2019s decision to prioritize his family first, as well as his own wellbeing. Mike has been open with us about his commitment to being the best version of himself for his family, this team and our fans, and we respect the steps he is taking to follow through on that commitment,\u201d read the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident in the leadership and communication Mike has established with our personnel staff throughout this pre-draft process. While he will not be present at the facility on Saturday, we know the draft evaluations are complete and Eliot Wolf and his personnel staff are prepared to execute our draft as planned this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vrabel said he spoke with his players about the recent events on Monday. The NFL said last week that it will not investigate Vrabel<\/a> over the original photos of him with Russini. Its personal conduct policy states that: \u201cEveryone who is part of the league must refrain from \u2018conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in\u2019 the NFL\u201d.<\/p>\n

Vrabel led the Patriots to February\u2019s Super Bowl, where they lost to the Seattle Seahawks, in his first season with the team. He was named Associated Press coach of the year for his achievements, turning around a team that had finished with a 4-13 record the previous season.<\/p>\n

Russini announced her resignation on 14 April amid an internal investigation at the Athletic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication throughout my career, and I stand behind every story I have ever published,\u201d Russini said in a letter<\/a> sent to the Athletic\u2019s executive editor, Steven Ginsberg. \u201cWhen the Page Six item first appeared, The Athletic supported me unequivocally, expressed confidence in my work and pride in my journalism. For that I am grateful. In the days that followed, unfortunately, commentators in various media have engaged in self-feeding speculation that is simply unmoored from the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots have given their backing to Mike Vrabel as new photos of their head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-874134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-newengland","12":"tag-newenglandpatriots","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116463686330783217","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}