Mike Vrabel and wife Jen played happy families at the weekend while celebrating their son’s engagement – just weeks after the New England Patriots coach sought counseling over the Dianna Russini scandal.
At the end of last month Vrabel declared his love for Jen and their two adult sons while speaking to the media for the first time since he stepped away from the Patriots to have counseling, a response to the bombshell photos that emerged of him and Russini fraternizing at an adults-only resort in Arizona together.
Despite initially denying allegations that they were having an affair, the 50-year-old agreed to seek professional help to become a ‘better person’ after having ‘difficult conversations with people I care about’ in the wake of the scandal.
‘I appreciate my family, I love Jen, I love the boys [Tyler and Carter], I love my personal friends,’ he said when asked about his work-life balance upon his return to New England.
After getting back to work, Vrabel is also attempting to pick up the pieces in his family life, with the scandalized head coach and his wife putting on a united front to celebrate Tyler’s engagement over the weekend.
Mike Vrabel and wife Jen were seen celebrating their son’s engagement at the weekend
Vrabel recently had counseling after being accused of an affair with NFL insider Dianna Russini
Tyler’s fiancée, Mariah Romano, shared photos from the engagement party on Instagram, with the third picture in her post showing Mike and Jen smiling alongside their soon-to-be daughter-in-law and two sons.
Mariah said in the caption: ‘the most perfect engagement surrounded by the people I love most’.
Rumors of an affair between Vrabel and female sports journalist Russini, who stepped down from her job at The Athletic over the scandal, began in March when the New York Post published photos of them hugging and hanging out poolside at the Arizona resort.
The Post later published more photos of Vrabel and Russini enjoying breakfast together at the same resort and other pictures showing the two kissing at a New York bar, reportedly, in March of 2020.
Russini and her husband, Shake Shack executive Kevin Goldschmidt, were married in September 2020. Vrabel has been married to Jen since 1999.
Furthermore, the Daily Mail has also published photos of Vrabel with the NFL insider at a Biloxi, Mississippi, casino in January 2024, and of him with a pregnant Russini renting a boat on a Tennessee lake three years earlier when he was coaching the Titans and she was reporting for ESPN.
Speaking before the first round of the NFL Draft, Vrabel stopped short of confessing to an affair. However, he did admit to causing ‘a distraction to the people that I care most about, my family, this football team, the organization and our fans.
Vrabel’s son, Tyler (right), got engaged to partner Mariah Romano (left) over the weekend
The Patriots coach has been married to Jen, the mother of his two sons, for over two decades
Vrabel declared his love for Jen and sons Tyler and Carter at a press conference last month
‘My previous actions don’t meet the standard that I hold myself to,’ he conceded.
‘They don’t. What I believe is best for the two most important things in my life, my family and this football team, is for us to take the necessary steps to work together and to give them what I told them I’d give them, which the best version of me, and that’s what we’re going to do.’
Vrabel stepped away from the team during the third day of the Draft to attend a counseling session, he said, because he was going to prioritize his family over his job going forward.
‘My priorities are my family and this football team – and in that order – and there’s a balance there that I am going to create. My family needs me this weekend and that’s where I’ll be.’
