Mike Vrabel addresses plan to step away from Patriots in wake of Dianna Russini photo leaks

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said Friday that his focus is on his family and taking accountability for actions that have created a distraction after additional photos surfaced Thursday showing him with former NFL reporter Dianna Russini.

The Patriots held a news conference from Gillette Stadium on Thursday night, just minutes ahead of the start of the 2026 NFL Draft, during which Vrabel addressed why he will skip Saturday’s final day of the draft.

“My priorities are my family in this football team and in that order,” Vrabel said. “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,” Vrabel said.

The coach is expected to remain with the team through Friday night, then leave after the Patriots wrap up the second night of the draft as he seeks counseling. He and his family plan to be out of Massachusetts this weekend.

The situation escalated Thursday, just hours before the draft began, when the New York Post released pictures that appear to show Vrabel and Russini together in 2020, kissing and embracing in a New York City bar.

At the time, Vrabel was coaching the Tennessee Titans, and Russini was working for ESPN. Vrabel was married, and Russini was engaged.

Russini resigned from The Athletic earlier this month after pictures surfaced showing her and Vrabel together at a resort in Arizona.

During Thursday’s news conference, Vrabel told the media he takes accountability for his actions.

“I understand that there are questions. 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,” Vrabel said. “My previous actions don’t meet the standard that I hold myself to. They don’t.”

Vrabel continued, “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. And that’s what we’re going to do,” Vrabel continued. “That’s going to start, that has started, that will continue this weekend, and it will continue for however long it takes for me to give them, to complete that promise and give them the best version of me possible. That’s what’s going to happen, and that’s what’s been happening.”

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Executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and fellow personnel vice president Ryan Cowden will run the draft room with Vrabel away.

Prior to the Thursday news conference, the Patriots released a statement Friday saying they support Vrabel’s decision to seek counseling with his family rather than participate in Saturday’s draft activities.

Weeks before the leak of the New York City photos, The Post published other photos of Vrabel and Russini holding hands, embracing, and sitting in a pool and hot tub at a resort in Sedona, Arizona.

The Sedona photos were said to be taken before the annual NFL meetings began in Phoenix on March 29. Vrabel addressed those photos earlier this week, saying he’s had “difficult conversations with people I care about,” including his family, his coaching staff, and team officials.

The NFL announced that it will not be investigating Vrabel.

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