Mother’s Day is a holiday dedicated to honoring and celebrating mothers, motherhood and the influence of maternal figures in America, and practically all NFL teams saluted the day on social media, including the New England Patriots.
And that’s when things went sideways.
The Patriots posted their shoutout to Mother’s Day at precisely 10 a.m. ET and within a few minutes everyone understood that social media still recalls that head coach Mike Vrabel, who is married to his wife and mother of their two kids, allegedly had a questionable, unprofessional relationship with NFL reporter Dianna Russini, who is herself married and a mother of two.
MIKE VRABEL BREAKS SILENCE ON DIANNA RUSSINI
So what ensued was a reaction. It was filled with snark, disgust, vitriol and probably some truth. And it came in a public forum.
This felt almost like the Patriots begging for folks to troll them. As one reply made the point, it was as if people were trampling all over each other to rush to the comments section of the post.
People posted AI-generated photos of Vrabel and Russini together on boats, and holding babies that look like the head coach. They posted messages to the team’s social media team, advising they perhaps should have skipped the post altogether.
MIKE VRABEL STEPPING AWAY TO SEEK FAMILY COUNSELING
Some even asked the NFL to intervene, as if the league would advise the club’s social media administrator that, well, too soon.
None of this should surprise. People slow down to see deadly crashes on the highway all the time.
And they flock to people wrecking their lives on social media. (They also flock when an account with 4.4 million followers seems to step on a landmine).
This is where some people will ask the obvious question: What are the Patriots supposed to do?
Are they supposed to not post a Mother’s Day salute, thus allowing the episode to make them different than practically every other team?
There is no 100% correct answer to the question. Perhaps turning off the replies would have been the move, although that also would have drawn attention.
Whatever the response from the Patriots, they should understand Sunday delivered a strong signal.
We’re seeing that reaction to the relationship between the coach and the reporter, to which neither has admitted was wrong, or out of bounds, or adulterous as many have speculated, isn’t going to go away soon.
It might not fade even into the NFL season’s kickoff, barring a scandal-ending moment — like Vrabel resigning or getting fired, or somebody telling the truth about what actually happened.
So the Patriots as an organization have to realize this scarlet letter is sticking right now. And it’s not just on their head coach, but rather it is pinned to the entire organization.
The Patriots have to remember there are 31 other NFL fan bases, and those people didn’t simply let go of past New England scandals such as Spygate or Deflategate. To this day those scandals come up despite being long-since scabbed over.
This one wound, still fresh and perhaps still bleeding, will be a thing for a while.
The Patriots got a reminder of that Sunday.
