Patriots coach Mike Vrabel broke his silence, but hurt the sincerity of his message

Vrabel hit a lot of the right notes in his statement. He declined comment on a few questions, but the last two weeks have clearly been humbling for a man who had been riding high with a Super Bowl appearance and NFL Coach of the Year award. It doesn’t seem that Vrabel finds the situation “laughable” anymore, as he said in his original statement to Page Six.

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But the way Tuesday’s press conference went down, with a last-minute sneak attack on the media and strict ground rules established by the Patriots, doesn’t sit right.

Though appearing transparent, the Patriots did their best to dictate the terms of Vrabel’s appearance. It cuts against Vrabel’s message of accountability.

Vrabel was supposed to speak to reporters Thursday night, after the first round of the NFL Draft. He explained why he instead spoke Tuesday, and it all made sense.

The coach wanted to address his players first, which he did at their first team meeting Monday. He felt he needed to take questions from reporters about it before his players did, hence the change in plans. And he didn’t want the story to overtake the draft.

“It was never my intention to have [the players] speak to you or address you before I did, and so I asked [vice president of communications Stacey James] to come today to talk with you,” Vrabel said. “I also don’t want to take away from the draft. … They’re starting an amazing journey, one that should be celebrated as we welcome them onto our team.”

It’s understandable that the Patriots didn’t want the media frenzy overtaking Thursday night’s draft. The TV stations would have sent their hard-news reporters. The media crowd would have been double the normal size. The first-round pick would have been an afterthought. Social media and ESPN the next morning would be dominated by all the awkward questions Vrabel had to face.

But the Patriots easily could have sent a heads up Monday night or Tuesday morning that Vrabel would be talking. Instead, they purposely chose a time and method that would minimize the number of reporters asking him questions. In an email, James declined to answer why the Patriots didn’t let more reporters know about the press conference.

The Patriots also set ground rules on reporters that those on hand did their best to circumvent. After Vrabel delivered his opening statement — about 2 minutes, 30 seconds in length — he did a side media session in which reporters were ordered to turn off all cameras, including phones, and were told to ask only football questions.

Thankfully, MassLive’s Karen Guregian ignored the directive and asked how Vrabel felt about Russini losing her job at The Athletic last week, which Vrabel respectfully declined to answer. Reporters including Mike Giardi, Dan Roche, and Dan Murphy asked legitimate follow-ups.

When the Globe’s Nicole Yang asked about Vrabel’s conversations with the Krafts, James chimed in that questions should be kept to football matters.

“I appreciate your job and what you guys have to do, but I have to make my comments and what I answer about our football team,” Vrabel said.

The Patriots finally got Vrabel in front of the media, and avoided the circus. It was smartly designed and flawlessly executed — the work, perhaps, of crisis communications experts, who have emerged as the big winner of this ordeal. Russini reportedly contacted one shortly after being approached by the Post, and the Krafts reportedly hired one to try to kill the story.

Vrabel finally ate the bleep sandwich Tuesday and said the right things, promising that everyone “will get the best version of me going forward.” And those photos with Russini have nothing to do with me, you, or the fans. It’s a personal issue between Vrabel, his wife, his family, and his employer.

But the ground rules and the sneak attack on the media were bush league and hurt the sincerity of his message.

Globe sports writers respond to Vrabel and Russini situation

Ben Volin and Chad Finn discuss the controversy surrounding NFL reporter Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel, who were seen together at an Arizona resort.

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.