{"id":659750,"date":"2026-05-10T07:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T07:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/659750\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T07:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T07:18:08","slug":"nfl-insider-speculates-on-what-could-get-mike-vrabel-fired-from-patriots-if-dianna-russini-scandal-continues-to-escalate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/659750\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL insider speculates on what could get Mike Vrabel fired from Patriots if Dianna Russini scandal continues to escalate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sports Illustrated\u2019s Albert Breer made an interesting comment on the job status of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, amid his scandal with former NFL Insider Dianna Russini, on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston.<\/p>\n

The New England Patriots<\/a> are in the middle of their rookie minicamp, May 8-10, and head coach Mike Vrabel is present, accounted for, and very active according to local reports, amid his extra-marital scandal with former NFL Insider Dianna Russini.<\/p>\n

Vrabel\u2019s scandal is officially over one month old since Page Six released the initial story<\/a> on April 7 of the reigning NFL Coach of the Year with Russini, who has since resigned from The Athletic, at a Sedona, Arizona private resort ahead of NFL Owner\u2019s Meetings in Phoenix. <\/p>\n

After missing day three of the NFL Draft for counseling, Vrabel has been full-go at the Patriots facility as he normally would at this point in the NFL offseason. Local media has shared images from rookie minicamp of the decorated former player and coach doing his normal practice activities, such as nearly going through the drills as players are.<\/p>\n

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The franchise released a statement<\/a> on draft day last month to \u201cfully support\u201d its coach and its belief in his future leadership of the football team. Players have publicly kept the same tune at media availabilities in and out of the team facility.<\/p>\n

Sports Illustrated\u2019s Albert Breer is a staple in the greater Boston sports ecosystem as a National NFL voice, as a native Bostonian and former member of the local beat for multiple outlets. <\/p>\n

Breer appears regularly on 98.5 The Sports Hub, and reverberated the same plan of support for Vrabel that we\u2019ve only seen from the franchise. However, on Toucher and Hardy on Friday morning<\/a>, Breer was prompted by a question from host Fred Toucher about the chances the coach could be fired from this scandal.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI would say at this point, it\u2019s definitely not in their plans to move on from Mike Vrabel,\u201d Breer says. \u201cI think if you look at the actions of the crash course, it\u2019s been a month now since the photos came out. Almost everything has been done (by the Patriots) in an effort to protect his employment to protect the team\u2019s image.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breer and Toucher continue, and agree that no one has control over the slow leak of old photos and events from the past by TMZ (referencing the Tennessee boat rental from June 2021<\/a>) or other tabloids.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s just this,\u201d Breer continued, \u201cdrips and drabs to kind of continue to fill in the blanks of what we sort of already know, then I think the Patriots just ride it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albert Breer: \u2018more women\u2019 could change things for Vrabel and the Patriots<\/p>\n

Breer\u2019s next sentence is where speculation begins to escalate. Up until this point, SI\u2019s lead NFL Insider has offered what he knows to be the case. Then, Breer flows into what could change the Patriots and owner Robert Kraft\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat could be worse is if like, again, like, I think it would have to almost be like more women coming out, or there being some sort of breach of trust within the organization where Mike Vrabel was serving his relationship (with Russini) over the team, in certain way, I think it would have to go to a different level (to fire Vrabel).<\/p>\n

A reminder than this was speculation from Breer about \u2018more women coming out\u2019 against Vrabel, but as Breer and the radio segment continued, this is what happens when a sports story gets so big and out of control it crosses into a different world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story is very clearly crossed the Rubicon from sports story into celebrity gossip story. As we\u2019re all finding out, that\u2019s a totally different world. It seems ridiculous that the origin of a four year old\u2019s name is a story like that is, I mean, like, holy crap. I can\u2019t believe we\u2019re talking about that right now, but that\u2019s where we are, and that\u2019s what happens when this crosses from a sports story into a celebrity gossip story. Quite honestly, I think that this is sort of what happens when you mess with Page Six.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breer ended with \u201cmessing with Page Six\u201d in referenced to how strongly Russini and Vrabel both denied the initial story of a romantic relationship form the April 7 pictures from the Sedona resort.<\/p>\n

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Russini claimed it was a friend\u2019s trip with four other people. Vrabel called the allegation of anything more than a professional relationship with Russini \u201claughable\u201d. As we know from the multiple new reports in the weeks since, not a single person involved with either family is laughing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sports Illustrated\u2019s Albert Breer made an interesting comment on the job status of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[243991,33714,49,48,153536,243990,1718,514,243989,242080,82,13460,1445,56047],"class_list":{"0":"post-659750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-98-5-the-sports-hub","9":"tag-albert-breer","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-dianna-russini","13":"tag-fred-toucher","14":"tag-new-england-patriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots-coach","17":"tag-rookie-minicamp","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sports-illustrated","20":"tag-tennessee","21":"tag-the-patriots"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}