Just when it seemed like the Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini story was fading, another bombshell sent it right back into the spotlight. The two reportedly chartered a private boat together in Putnam County, Tennessee, in June 2021, while Russini was pregnant with her first child.
Vrabel and Russini have gone through a PR nightmare since the scandal broke. Crisis and reputation strategist Molly McPherson explained how the Patriots’ head coach could have moved more quickly to limit the damage.
Crisis Expert Says Mike Vrabel’s Biggest Mistake Was Refusing to Own the Controversy
“Mike Vrabel could have put this story to rest weeks ago if he managed it properly,” McPherson said.
“We are not holding Mike Vrabel and NFL coaches to a standard that they can’t cheat,” she added. “That’s not the problem. It’s that he refuses to take accountability for it.”
She also dismissed comparisons to Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Nobody holds NFL owners to the same benchmark of trust and accountability, she explained. That’s just not how public perception works.
The core issue, in McPherson’s view, is avoidance. Vrabel has been dodging questions for weeks, allowing the story to gain momentum. He didn’t try to control the narrative.
McPherson’s assessment of Vrabel’s long-term future in New England is blunt. She believes he should have been a “legacy Hall of Fame coach for the Patriots”, but now she’s not so sure that will be the case anymore.
“The first time that the Patriots go sideways, they’re not gonna blame players or Kraft,” she said. “It’s gonna be Vrabel, and Vrabel’s gonna have to go.”
She pointed to Alex Cora as an example of how this can play out differently. The Boston Red Sox manager was let go, reportedly because ownership wanted changes in the coaching staff.
According to McPherson, instead of fighting it, Cora left on his terms. Red Sox fans weren’t happy about losing him, but he walked away with his integrity intact. He chose to manage the crisis rather than get buried by it.
Meanwhile, Russini has largely stepped out of the public eye. She resigned from The Athletic before an internal investigation concluded and released a statement making her position clear.
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“I do so not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode,” she wrote, “but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career.”
McPherson strongly believes the story would have lost steam had Vrabel owned it early. But she argues he “threw Dianna Russini under the bus” and made the situation worse for everyone involved.
