How could Vrabel situation impact Pats’ schedule?
Mike Florio and Michael Holley discuss the remaining scheduling options for Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season, analyzing how the Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini situation could impact the Patriots going forward.
Video Transcript
So process of reasoning as applied by Gary Carter to the games that we currently know will be played week one, for example, 49ers/Rams, it takes them out of the mix to potentially visit the Seahawks for the night they hang their banner to celebrate their most recent Super Bowl win.
The teams that are left- Okay for Wednesday, September 9 are the Bears, the Patriots, the Chargers, and the Cardinals.
So out of the nine potential opponents, we're down to four.
It's gonna be the Bears, the Patriots, the Chargers, or the Cardinals opening the season.
Yeah.
Seahawks/Cardinals doesn't move the needle.
so let's just, let's eliminate the Cardinals.
Sorry, Cardinals.
Seahawks/Patriots would be interesting, but would you play that card right now, or you wanna save that for later in the season?
They did a Super Bowl rematch right out of the gates 10 years ago when the Panthers and the Broncos had played.
Denver won the Super Bowl, obviously, and it was a very close game down to the wire.
I think it was a John Casey field goal try that was no good.
That was the night that Cam Newton just got battered.
You know, he was a, a victim of being perceived to be indestructible, so guys are bouncing off of him helmet first, and they're not throwing flags.
I remember being at that game.
But they did the rematch then right out of the gates.
So it's not impossible, it's not unprecedented, but you look at how the Super Bowl went, it's like, I don't know.
Is it gonna go any different?
Like, are the Patriots gonna be significantly better?
The Seahawks don't seem to be any worse, and they're at home, and they're raising a banner, which doesn't seem to be- And there's an additional storyline that will get- that might compete with the banner or might compete with the Super Bowl rematch, so we don't necessarily want that in week one.
I think it might be the Bears.
If- I think it's the Bears if, if it would happen to be Patriots/Seahawks week one Wednesday night, would it be the sit-down tell-all with Oprah or Morley Safer or Barbara Walters?
I don't know who the go-tos would be right now, but would that happen the night before?
Wouldn't that be, wouldn't that be something?
Yeah, that would be something.
That would be something.
That would be You- you're talking about from the other party.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
That would be, uh- Yeah that would be strictly- I mean, you're framing You're, you're, you're begging for it.
Especially, you ha- you got it right now.
You get this schedule, and you're like, "Okay."
Well, I mean- "There it is" when else would you do it?
Yeah.
Memorial Day weekend is coming up in a few weeks.
Summertime, everything kind of shuts down.
It all starts up again- Yeah Labor Day.
Labor Day's Monday.
Tuesday night, exclusive sit-down, hear her story for the first time in her own words tonight on- Yeah ABC or CBS or NBC or wherever.
Wednesday night, Patriots/Seahawks.
I mean, if you wanna create maximum chaos depending upon what the other party to the relationship is gonna say, I think back to the week that the Patriots were hosting the Steelers, 2015 season.
The first regular season home game after Super Bowl 49, after Deflategate.
ESPN had some big, long, deep investigation dating all the way back to Spygate, and the argument was that the Deflategate punishment, it was over-hyped because And this was the ESPN reporting.
I didn't report any of it.
But the argument was there were owners who thought- Owners who said, "Oh, he got off" the league went too easy.
So.
So, and there, and that was the one that had the- Time for a reckoning.
Right the image of Jeff Pash jumping up and down on a VHS tape to destroy the Spygate evidence.
That all landed.
I remember we got to Boston two days before the game or a day before the game, and, like, that was taking over the league.
So imagine what happens if, and I'm saying if, it should happen to be Super Bowl rematch right out of the gates, and the sit-down 90-minute tell-all interview is the day before, and whatever is said needs to be processed like that.
And what does it mean?
What are the implications?
It, it, it wouldn't affect that game per se.
It would hang over it depending upon what's said, but there'd be a lot in the aftermath.
Like, we gotta get through the game, and then we're gonna figure out whether any And I don't know what she's gonna say.
That's the thing.
I don't know what she's gonna say.
But as I've said before, it doesn't take much to be the one thing, depending upon what is said, that could make it untenable for the other party to continue in his job.
All right.
Let's, let's not even get to untenable.
Is there anything she can say that will put a bow on it?
Probably not, right?
Like, even if it's Let, let's say it's, uh- And just end it, you mean.
Like- Yeah, just it's- it's done it's, it, it- Yeah.
Because almost anything, anything that is said now, it, it has Okay, we gotta, as you said, they've gotta process it.
Even if it's not necessarily the most profound, you know, bomb-tossing thing, if it's just she says some things, oh, okay, that's a different perspective.
Now we're talking about that.
We're talking about it again.
Whatever she- Yeah.
You're right.
Yeah.
What- whatever she says is gonna make it an issue now.
So, you know, so maybe it, it, it brings it to, It slows it down a little bit, but it doesn't stop it.
Yeah.
It, you know, okay, here we go.
It, it, it, it extends the news cycle for another couple of days or another couple of weeks.
I just know right now, to bring it back, to, to Mike Vrabel.
He's some You know where Mike Vrabel is right now?
I think both of them are in this situation, and I can't think of an NFL equivalent ever where they are in the, they're in the Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars , you know, any, you know, name your, name your celebrity.
Whenever they leave the house, paparazzi s- oh.
Yeah.
Okay.
Here, okay.
Now grocery store, gas station, on the way to work, hanging out, talking to a neighbor, at the park, whatever it is.
Whatever they are in that space, that no matter what they do, where they go, restaurant, there's somebody saying, "Hey, I saw them here, and they did this."
It could be the most common thing.
"Oh, yeah, oh, Mike Vrabel picked up a loaf of bread and some jelly."
"Okay.
It was great.
And you know what?
Weirdest thing, he paid cash."
I mean, it is They are, they are there now, and I can't think of an NFL, of an NFL coach.
I mean, like, Mike, there's not even any NFL players in that category right now.
No.
Kelsey's the closest.
I mean, Kelsey.
Closest.
But Kelsey because of- Right because of Taylor Swift.
But there's not a player You know, like, that doesn't happen to Josh Allen, and Josh Allen is married to a movie star.
Doesn't happen to him.
It doesn't happen to Patrick Mahomes wherever he goes.
Now, when it's Mahomes or somebody else, when they're going to, the Met Gala, or they're going to the Derby, you know, there's coverage there.
"Oh, look who was at the Derby.
It was Joe Burrow and Justin Jefferson."
But just everyday stuff, that's the category they're in now, and I don't know when that's gonna stop.
Well, we need to break, and I am invoking what I said earlier in the show is used against me from time to time.
It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
We didn't ask to go 61 minutes- Is that a record?
to start the show, so- Did we set a record?
We're sorry.
We're sorry.
There's no rec- If we keep talking- Gary Carter says no?
we'll set the record.
It's 8:57, 58.
