{"id":208669,"date":"2026-04-23T20:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/mike-vrabel-to-skip-some-of-nfl-draft-for-counseling-in-wake-of-dianna-russini-scandal-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:12:24","slug":"mike-vrabel-to-skip-some-of-nfl-draft-for-counseling-in-wake-of-dianna-russini-scandal-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/mike-vrabel-to-skip-some-of-nfl-draft-for-counseling-in-wake-of-dianna-russini-scandal-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Vrabel to skip some of NFL draft for counseling in wake of Dianna Russini scandal – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREAKING: 10 people injured in Mall of Louisiana shooting, suspects still at large<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will miss a portion<\/a> of the NFL Draft and undergo counseling <\/a>in the wake of photos emerging of himself and former NFL reporter Dianna Russini, the team said Thursday.
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He will not be with the Patriots on Saturday during the third day of the NFL Draft, which begins on Thursday night.
\u201cAs I said the other day, I promised my family, this organization and this team that I was going to give them the best version of me that I can possibly give them,\u201d Vrabel said in statement originally reported by ESPN <\/a>late Wednesday night.
“In order to do so, I have committed to seeking counseling, starting this weekend.”
The Patriots on Thursday verified the validity of that statement to NBC News.
\u201cThis is something that I have given a lot of thought to and is something I would advise a player to do if I was counseling them,” he added.
When photos emerged of Vrabel in hand-holding positions with former Athletic reporter Russini, the coach initially dismissed the images as “laughable.”
But as the story picked up steam and Russini resigned from the Athletic<\/a>, Vrabel had to address the issue in Tuesday, telling reporters that he has “had some difficult conversations with people that I care about, with my family, the organization, the coaches, the players.”
Vrabel, the 2025 NFL coach of the year<\/a>, led New England to a magical Super Bowl run, following three straight losing seasons and consecutive 4-13 campaigns.
The former Patriots player<\/a> had previously been head coach of the Tennessee Titans<\/a>. He guided that club to four winning years before he was shown the exit in the wake of back-to-back losing seasons in 2022 and 2023.
Despite Russini ‘s departure from her job, there’ve been no indications that Vrabel’s job could be in jeopardy<\/a>.
Senior Breaking News Reporter
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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BREAKING: 10 people injured in Mall of Louisiana shooting, suspects still at large news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeNew England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will miss a portion of the NFL Draft and undergo counseling in the wake of photos emerging of himself and former NFL reporter Dianna Russini, the team said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-208669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}