Mike Vrabel Skipping Patriots Press Conference Amid Offseason Controversy

Last year, first-year New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel participated in the team’s pre-draft press conference.

Coaches are not required to participate in these media availabilities, but the Patriots made Vrabel available to reporters to ask questions about New England’s draft plans.

This year, Vrabel won’t be participating in the press conference, leaving Patriots executive vice president and de facto general manager Eliot Wolf to handle Monday’s meeting with reporters.

Of course, Vrabel’s absence from this press conference will heighten speculation about the viral images with The Athletic’s insider Dianna Russini, who has been shelved while the company investigates any potential wrongdoing.

Vrabel and Russini were photographed interlocking fingers and sitting in a pool at a luxury resort in Sedona, Arizona before the annual league meetings a few weeks ago. The images were shopped around and eventually sold to The New York Post’s Page Six column. Immediately after, Vrabel and Russini released statements, explaining they were with other people.

“The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day,” Russini said.

But since Russini won’t be reporting for The Athletic during their investigation, something about this story feels a bit fishy. Perhaps something nefarious was going on?

“An initial review suggested the images provided lacked context, specifically the presence of a larger group of friends,” a source told NBC.

New details from the report “and information from the investigation raised additional concerns that are now being further reviewed.”

Vrabel won’t be the one answering for it – that’s for sure.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that an actual reporter would waste a question on these images, as there are plenty of other questions to be asked about draft prospects, the team’s reported interest in Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, etc. If a question were to be asked, Vrabel could always reference his initial statement, which was pretty blunt.

“These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable,” Vrabel said in his original statement. “This doesn’t deserve any further response.”

While Russini could face consequences with her employer regardless of whatever happened, Vrabel isn’t likely to be at risk of anything – at least not professionally. After leading the Patriots to the Super Bowl, he’s been widely regarded as one of the top coaches in the NFL.

Unfortunately for those individuals who are obsessed with this story, no new information or details will emerge when the Patriots gather to discuss their NFL Draft plans with reporters – unless somebody dares to ask Wolf a question about it.