The stars of ESPN’s “First Take” don’t understand the timing of Mike Vrabel’s counseling decision.
The Patriots head coach, embroiled in scandal after Page Six photos showed him and reporter Dianna Russini together at an adults-only resort in Arizona last month, told ESPN on Wednesday he would be missing Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft on Saturday as he is “seeking counseling.”
New bombshell photos published by Page Six on Thursday show Vrabel and Russini kissing at a Manhattan bar six years ago.
Vrabel issued a statement to reporters at the Patriots’ training facility Tuesday, two days before the start of the three-day draft, and said he was having “difficult conversations” with family and members of the team.
“I am in no position to comment on someone’s relationship or marriage or whatever. That is their personal business. I will say this though: I don’t love the fact — now, as I said, I feel like it becomes a football situation — that Mike Vrabel has to be away from his team on Saturday on Day 3 of the draft,” Shae Cornette said Thursday on “First Take,” shortly before the new photos were published.
“Why? Why can’t you be away on Monday? Why does this have to become my business that I know when you’re going to counseling? I don’t want this to be my business. I don’t want any of this to be my business, quite frankly. So, what they do in their personal time is up to them.
“But now this creates a situation where we have to talk about it on this show. We didn’t want to talk about this on this show. So, we have to sit here and talk about it now because he told us that he’s gonna go to counseling on Saturday Day 3 of the draft. And that’s where I feel like this has now become maybe a problem and a little bit of a distraction to his football team.”
Vrabel, who shares two sons with his wife Jen, initially told Page Six when the Arizona photos were published — one of which shows he and Russini interlocking fingers — that the two had “a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable.”
Russini has since resigned from The Athletic, which is conducting an investigation.
“She worked here [at ESPN] for 10 years. I know her to be a good person, I know her to be an outstanding reporter who worked very, very hard to do the best job that she could possibly do,” Stephen A. Smith said during “First Take.” “But there’s no question she put herself in a compromising situation.”
Smith also said it “makes no sense” why Vrabel would miss the third day of the draft but be with the team for the first two.
“I think he would’ve been better served shutting the hell up, keeping his mouth shut and keeping his personal business to his personal stuff and his family,” Smith said. “But because he didn’t do that, I think he ended up incriminating himself and her even more than when he did if he had just shut up.”