Controversy about Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini pictures still causes quite an uproar in the NFL world.
As per an ESPN report, some coaches and officials of the league confirm that they have been affected by the controversy and now they behave differently with their colleagues and the media due to fear of finding themselves in a similar situation.
For their report, ESPN quoted by Marca, conducted a series of interviews with the league people, reporters, players, and coaches. Most of them gave their comments under the condition of remaining anonymous.
“All the coaches are under surveillance right now, all the s–t with Vrabel,” one assistant coach from another NFL team told ESPN.
In the aftermath of the Patriots getting into the Super Bowl on the very first year of Vrabel’s head coaching position in Foxborough, Page Six released a set of photographs in April featuring Vrabel along with Russini, an NFL journalist at The Athletic, at a luxury resort for adults only.
The Negative Ripple Effect on Female Sports Journalists
The other assistant coach, who does not work for the Patriots, confirmed he has become far more careful when dealing with female co-workers and journalists.
“It’s the insinuation; you gotta watch yourself because players, coaches, people are looking at you, like, ‘Are you in a relationship?'” he said.
“That is the trickle-down effect. Just imagine you’ve been working all day, 14, 16 hours, and you get to come home and your wife says, ‘Hey, did you see this?’… It creates the perception of, OK, this is what coaches are doing when we’re out of town or playing away games.”
NFL Front Offices Utilize Scandal as Crisis Management Model
The ESPN report claims that the Vrabel-Russini scandal turned out to be a very popular subject of discussion in several NFL teams and even served as an example of crisis management.
A source from one of the NFL teams shared that the front office of his organization studied the case and considered how it could behave in such a situation.
Several female sports reporters from ESPN and other media outlets told ESPN that this scandal has impacted their work negatively.
