New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye has finally broken his silence on coach Mike Vrabel’s photo scandal with sports reporter Dianna Russini.
“Yeah, we’re here for Coach, we love Coach,” the athlete told WHDH-TV 7News in Boston Wednesday. “What he does for us, what he’s done for us this past year, you can’t speak into words, and just thankful he’s our head coach.”
Maye, 23, added that although he knows Vrabel is “dealing with some stuff off the field and out of the coaching world,” he and his teammates are “here for him.”
“I know he’s gonna come back,” he shared.
The NFL star’s comment comes nearly a month after Page Six released exclusive photos of Vrabel, 50, and Russini, 43, holding hands and hugging at a luxury resort in Sedona, Arizona.
The coach and the sportscaster — who are both married to other people — insisted they were joined by other friends at the resort, despite multiple eyewitnesses disputing their claims.
“These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. This doesn’t deserve any further response,” Vrabel told us in a statement at the time.
Russini said in her own statement, “The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day. Like most journalists in the NFL, reporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.”
Despite their denials, Russini was sidelined by the New York Times and then resigned from her position as senior NFL insider at the Athletic.
For his part, Vrabel announced that he would not be with his team for Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft to focus on family and personal matters and seek counseling.
A day later, Page Six published photos of Vrabel and Russini cozying up together at a dimly-lit New York City bar in 2020 — six years before their Arizona resort outing.
“They were kissing and they were all over each other,” an eyewitness told Page Six. “He had a ring on.”
At the time, Mike was already married to his wife, Jen Vrabel, while Russini was set to say “I do” to her now-husband, Shake Shack executive Kevin Goldschmidt, just six months later.
Following the release of the latest batch of photos, Russini deleted her social media accounts.
Page Six also exclusively reported that the pics prompted Mike and his wife, Jen, to have an emergency 24-hour marriage summit in Park City, Utah.
Mike and Russini each share two children with their respective spouses.
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