Page Six published photos on April 7 that showed New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel with former Athletic correspondent Dianna Russini at the Ambiente Sedona resort. Once the news broke, the locker room Vrabel had spent more than a year building became the most important room he had to walk into. Before speaking to the press, Vrabel had reportedly met with his players personally. Word leaked out of that meeting, and then his players spoke up for him. 

“Coach is football, and he keeps the main thing the main thing,” linebacker Robert Spillane said, per Patriots reporter Sophie Weller. “I know he’s dealing with personal issues, but when he’s in the building, we’re speaking about football.”

Spillane’s answer acknowledged the personal situation and highlighted that it has no footprint on the practice field. But he wasn’t the only one. Tight end Hunter Henry also spoke about the talk Vrabel had with the team.

“I thought he did a great job,” Henry said, per Patriots beat writer Doug Keyd. “He’s been the same Vrabes, bringing a lot of energy in the room.”

After their win over the Houston Texans in the divisional round last postseason, Vrabel had run into the tunnel ready to greet all of his stars as they walked in. It was a tradition he had developed over the years, and he is still bringing that same energy to the team.

In just fourteen months, Mike Vrabel turned a four-win New England Patriots team into a Super Bowl franchise. That kind of turnaround happened because he genuinely brought the locker room together.  Additionally, per a report published by Outkick, another anonymous player had shared what Vrabel told the locker room upon his return.

“He mentioned how we all on a journey together,” the player said, “and sometimes we fail but we got to be prepare to keep going together no matter what. We knew what he was talking about.”

While the locker room feels united behind Mike Vrabel now, it wasn’t exactly a clean stretch on the outside. Reports in mid-April indicated players were reportedly frustrated with Vrabel’s initial silence. NBC Sports Boston host Michael Holley even pointed it out publicly.

“I spoke to a former player, and he said, ‘The hell they won’t want answers. You think Mike Vrabel can just brush this under the rug without talking to the players? Coaching don’t treat us like they treat the media,’” Holley said. “I think Vrabel will have to say something to his team.”

Vrabel did address the room, even before he addressed the press. But what Vrabel had to address didn’t materialize overnight. It had been building for weeks through mounting outside pressure, a public apology, and a resignation.

Mike Vrabel’s remarks after the controversy

When Vrabel addressed reporters on April 21 after pictures of him and Dianna Russini were released, he noted that he had spoken to the players, coaches, and his family about the situation and pointed the finger at himself.

“We believe in order to be successful on and off the field, you have to make good decisions,” Vrabel said. “That includes me, that starts with me. We never want our actions to affect the team. We never want to be the cause of a distraction.”

The next day, before announcing that he would miss Day 3 of the draft, Vrabel revealed he was seeking counseling. 

“I promised my family, this organization, and this team that I was going to give them the best version of me that I can give them,” Vrabel said. “To do so, I have committed to seeking counseling, starting this weekend.”

EVP Eliot Wolf and VP Ryan Cowden ran the draft war room in his absence. Meanwhile, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, drawing on Vrabel’s statement, noted that it had only added fuel to the narrative, making things “even harder for Russini.”

“In contrast, Vrabel will by all appearances be moving forward,” Florio wrote.

After the Athletic launched an internal review following the controversy, Russini decided to resign from her post. “Rather than allowing this to continue, I have decided to step aside now – before my current contract expires on June 30,” she wrote. “I do so not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career.”

In her resignation letter, she noted that the media narratives around her were “simply unmoored from the facts.”

Meanwhile, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell put an end to the league-wide questions directed at Mike Vrabel.

“No, this is not a personal conduct policy, as we know today,” Goodell said. “It’s a personal matter, and we’ll leave it at that.”

For now, Mike Vrabel is back, and the Patriots have started making roster moves for the new season. As for the controversy, the questions outside the building haven’t gone away. But inside, things seem to have settled down.