Will Vrabel story affect relationship with Kraft?
Mike Florio and Chris Simms reflect on the Patriots' handling of the Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini story.
Video Transcript
That's the thing.
He's admitting, in my opinion- Pretty much and I have to say in my opinion, 'cause I'm not looking to, to have liability to anyone, but I wanna be fair to everyone, and I wanna be fair to the audience.
He's admitting that- Yeah, he crossed the line exactly what it looks like is what it was.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
To the point where he needs counseling.
Yes.
I, I mean- I think the shocking mo- I would assume he's not the only one- No, no.
And- in the NFL that's doing this kind of stuff.
Right.
But he's going to counseling for Like, and I know that that, that it's like goes all the way back to Tiger Woods.
You go to counseling when you get caught.
I, you know And I'm sure that it's the product of some, some of these difficult conversations he said he had with his family, that this is where it's ended up.
But regardless, he's kind of admitting that something was going on.
Yeah.
And this gets back to what I said yesterday.
I don't know she can ever come back from this as a reporter.
Right.
I don't know that she can ever Because the credibility is obliterated.
Because they didn't ever reside in the world of truth.
This was, how do we put this fire out?
Yeah.
What story can we tell to make these photos look like something other than what people are going to think they are?
And now Vrabel, twice this week, has essentially said to the world, "They're exactly what you thought they were."
Yeah.
Yeah.
It, it is.
It's cr- it is crazy.
I, at a base level, right, knowing both And, and, and again, I'm, I'm one that has done plenty of dumb crap in my life, right?
I mean, I've done so much dunk- dumb crap, we don't have enough time.
We could fill up the whole show here.
But yeah, for, hey, two people that are very smart and good at their job, it is just amazing to think that th- that they were gonna go to a hotel, a- and the head coach of the New England Patriots, in the day and age where everybody can look up their phone and go, "Wait, that guy over there, this is a lot of this is an adults only hotel, and it's usually couples and stuff like that.
Wait, hold on.
That's Mike Vrabel.
Well, nope, that's not Mike Vrabel's wife in the picture.
What the hell's going on here?"
I mean, just from that base level there, it is just crazy, right?
That their mind and, and everything went that way there, for two people that I, I do think are pretty smart individuals.
So yeah, it's, it's a shocking story.
And again, it's, it's amazing, and it continues to go and go and go, and cr- you know, like we said, cross mainstream lines.
And stuff like this is gonna continue that as well, with, with the story here with Vrabel and the counseling on Saturday.
There are certain coaches where if you see them out of context, you're not immediately sure- Yeah who they are.
You may not recognize them.
I remember being at the Super Bowl right around the, the year that the Falcons traded up for Julio Jones.
Mike Smith was coming into the media center, and he spoke to me, and I spoke to him, and I remember thinking, "I should know who that is."
But he didn't have his Falcons polo shirt on.
Right?
Right.
And I was like It took me a while- Yeah to put it all together.
But, you know, Jesse Minner would be one of those right now, especially because he hasn't coached yet.
Yeah.
We could come up with seven, eight, nine, 10 coaches that's like, you know, we wouldn't be Like, if he's out somewhere, it would take a little, "Is that, is that..." But that doesn't happen to Mike.
Mike Vrabel- Yeah has a very unique presence.
He is big.
He has a memorable face.
He is gregarious.
He is animated.
He is not somebody you are not going to notice.
And you're right.
What are you, what are you doing?
What, what are you thinking?
He As I've said multiple times, and I mean this out of utmost respect to him, but also respect to the story, he is way too smart to do something that stupid.
Yeah.
And I think that's why he's so embarrassed and chagrined by what happened.
Sure.
This isn't something that Mike Vrabel would do.
This is a guy who's the master of the rule book, and he's breaking one of the most obvious rules, one of the brightest lines that any married person can, can breach.
Yeah.
It's, it's, it's ridiculous when you think about it, that he allowed himself to be put in that position, if what he said on Tuesday means what it seems to, and if he's going to counseling and missing a day of the draft, for what the natural progression of this story would seem to be.
But good Lord, they It really has been a PR debacle for the Patriots from the get-go.
You gotta have hard conversations with people, and it makes you wonder, Chris, what they think of him now.
Because I know that, and I can draw a couple of examples over the years, where something has happened, and when Robert Kraft comes to you and asks you what happened, if you're honest with him, he's gonna react one way.
If you're not honest with him, he's gonna react a different way.
And the cover-up's worse than the crime.
And to the extent that they believed something that ultimately wasn't true, that these are nothing, that this is laughable, that it deserves no further response, and now we're 180 degrees from where we were, that's a separate indignity to the organization.
And the, the team is gonna wear this, this PR stain.
It could alter the relationship between Robert Kraft and Mike VrabelYeah.
I, I mean, listen, I, I'm c- I'm certainly th- they're not proud right now.
I, I, I don't, you know, have any doubt about that.
We know the C- the Kraft family, they're proud of the Patriots, they're proud of what they do as an organization, and they're, they're top-notch in just about everything they do all the time, and they don't want this bad publicity here like this.
But I think at the same time too, you know, humans do make mistakes.
They know that.
And, you know, sometimes when you, you're, you're a human that's, you know, high society, star, and has the presence, and you talk about and all that, yeah, at times guys like that can lose their way a little bit, and you gotta get back on track.
And I think that, you know, you could chalk it up to that.
I, I'm not gonna judge Mike Vrabel, you know, for a lifetime of what- It's not I'm not judging- No, no, I know you're not I'm not judging him I'm, I'm just, I'm- All, all I'm saying is- I know all I'm saying is- I- he, he didn't tell the truth to Robert Kraft.
I, I know.
I know.
And does that affect the relationship?
That's all I'm saying.
Yeah.
No.
I'm not making a character judgment, I'm just pointing out one fact.
I know.
I'm not even talking to you.
I'm t- I'm talking about, like, the Krafts- Okay.
Okay and how they would look at it.
So just, just relax, slugger.
All right.
All right.
But so- All right so yeah.
I, I know.
So you, you look at that, and yeah, I don't think, you know, you're gonna change your perspective or, or your judgment on him and going, "Wait, I've known this guy forever, and he's done 999 things good."
I'm not gonna go, "Oh, he's a bad guy 'cause of the one thing he did here that was bad and he messed up," right?
I mean, he still had a lifetime of, of doing things a respectful way, doing things the right way, like you talked about before, follow the rules, you know, man's man, blah, blah, blah.
But he lost his way here.
He lost his way here.
That hurts and, you know, that's where they're trying to put the toothpaste back in the bottle or whatever else here to d- damage control, and that's what this kind of feels like.
It feels like it's a little bit of, like, hey, you know you did wrong, you know, and the p- publicity's around a- around it is crazy.
And this is one of those things where I wouldn't be shocked if the NFL called the, the, the Patriots and said, "Hey, this is a bad look.
Maybe we should say something.
Maybe we should do something.
Maybe we should make it look like, you know, we're, we're punishing him a little bit."
I wouldn't be shocked if this was a game plan kind of thing here to, to kind of soften the blow and maybe make look Vrabel a little bit more like he's accepting some of the consequences here because he's not gonna get fired like Diana Russini and all that.
I don't know.
It is weird though because you, I think, would want to create the impression that you affirmatively did something because he's doing this voluntarily.
Yeah.
And there's still going to be- Yeah the sense that- Right and I think it exacerbates it because, man, he's admitted some stuff, and they haven't done anything to him.
He's admitted whatever he admitted to when he came to the press room and made his statement.
Now he's admitting to something by saying he's going to miss the third day of the draft to go to counseling, and they're still not doing anything to him.
The way it's all worded And I agree with you.
It, it's entirely possible that's what they intended to do.
It's just poorly executed.
Yeah.
Right.
I- Right I think that, that, that is a problem that has infected this entire process from everyone's perspective.
Whatever the plan, and all of this stuff is planned out.
See, we live in an age where when something happens, it's not about, "Hey, you know what?
Maybe we should just tell the truth and move forward."
It's, "How do we avoid this?
How do we turn the tables?
How do we shout down anyone that's gonna try Because, you know, we're gonna go forward with our lives here, and we need to push back against this."
And as I said yesterday, there's only one person who can really, for whatever reason, pull it off when our lying eyes tell us one thing, and the story is it's something else.
Only one person can pull that off.
It's hard to pull that off.
And the point I'm making about Robert Kraft and Mike Vrabel is, takes a lifetime to build trust, but that trust can be lost in an instant.
How do you rebuild that trust?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because that's where we are right now.
There's a relationship between Mike Vrabel and his family members that has been impaired, that needs to be rebuilt, and now there's a relationship between Mike Vrabel and his employer that has been impaired and needs to be rebuilt.
Because unless the Patriots, unless he told the Patriots the truth, and their position was, "Well, let's try to-" That's crossed my mind, yeah approach this a different way.
Yes.
Right.
I, I don't You don't need to tell us.
Mike, don't Stop talking, Mike.
Right.
We don't need to know.
Look, these photos are nothing.
These photos are nothing.
She said that, friends were there.
Were friends there?
Yeah, I guess friends were.
Okay, well, th- th- this is what we're gonna go with.
This is what we're, this is what we're gonna do.
We don't need this.
We don't need this.
We don't want this.
But man, if that's the case, yeah, they should have hired a crisis communications expert.
Yeah, right.
They should have come up- Right with something better.
'Cause if they were, if they were planning it this way, man, I- one of the worst examples of organizational PR I've ever seen in any industry- Yeah if this is, if this is the result of planning.
Yeah, we haven't seen the Patriots have too many self-inflicted wounds, throughout the years since they became great.
You know, I know we've had some We've had Spygate, Deflategate, and all that, and sure, yeah, but, you know, at the same time, it's, it's been a top-notch organization that is, is very, very few times kind of s- m- what, what do I wanna say, self-messed up self ba- basically here, and put themselves in a, a situation where you feel like, yeah, they haven't handled it exactly right, and they continue to, like we say, breathe oxygen into the fire here.
