What's next for Mike Vrabel? NFL writer reacts to Dianna Russini photo scandal, impact on Patriots

8.15 this morning the breaking news from overnight Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel announcing he'll be undergoing counseling this weekend ESPN first to report the story. As a result he will not be available for day three of the NFL draft. All of this part of the fallout following the release of pictures of Vrabel with former NFL reporter Diana Rossini. Ben Voll and a senior NFL writer for the Boston Globe he's been covering this story for the Globe. Ben good to see you this morning. So what do you make of this announcement by Mike Vrabel? Yeah I mean obviously I think first and foremost you know I wish Mike Vrabel the best in getting the help he needs in counseling. My thought is this now is taking a turn from a personal matter from Vrabel to a football matter. The fact that he's missing day three of the draft on Saturday is something I'd like to know a little bit more about. You know what is it about this counseling that is requiring him to miss on a important day? I understand Elliott Wolfe and the scouts are kind of running the draft process and those day three picks a lot of times you can let you know the the scouts and the position coaches who have spent more time on those types of prospects those time they can have an impact there. So Mike Vrabel isn't necessarily running the show but why is he not involved at all? And what I said like I said is a pretty important day for the Patriots with eight draft picks and you know diamonds in the rough. Tom Brady was a day three draft pick. So I'm just curious now why is why is Mike Vrabel starting this so quickly that he can't be involved in the draft? There aren't that many other weekends in the spring where they have to work couldn't have been put off another time. And it's just what's remarkable too Gene is here we are two and a half weeks later now and the story just keeps growing new legs. It keeps growing new tentacles. I don't know if there was a way for the Patriots to minimize the damage but I think we can safely say that two weeks in they haven't done a good job of really containing the story. Well you mentioned this being a football thing now obviously the biggest fence to mend is with his wife and family but what is the level of importance in in clearing this up and addressing it with his players and the organization something which he's already done but now as you mentioned the story's not going away. Yeah I think Vrabel did the right thing in addressing the matter with his players immediately. The Patriots players most of them returned to the facility this week to start the voluntary off-season program so those who were in attendance I think Vrabel was smart to address it right away as he mentioned in his press conference yesterday or in his statement. If he didn't address it then the players would start whispering and it would really kind of hurt his message of accountability. So I felt like he kind of did took the right steps there and you know once he did that and addressed it with his employer and talked about it with the media you know I felt like he had mostly done his part and the story would fade away. Now that we see that he's going to counseling he's going to be missing at least one very important football activity it just breathes a whole new life into the story and it calls you know it starts to question like what is what is going on here with Vrabel's leadership and what is happening with the team. So it's just like I said here we are two and a half weeks into it and the story now just new life continues to to be breathed into the story and now it's affecting the football team with Mike Vrabel not going to be available on Saturday for the draft. Do you think there'll be any other consequences for Vrabel beyond the embarrassment the public discussion of this and should there be? Well I will say that the the public discussion of it and the embarrassment is definitely a big part of the punishment. The NFL has said they're not going to investigate him for any sort of violation of the personal conduct policy. I know Diana Rossini lost his job and some people are wondering why aren't there more consequences for Vrabel. The reason is Diana you know she she probably violated a cardinal rule of her profession and Mike Vrabel did. His trip whatever happened there is between him and his wife and his family and his employer. So I don't expect any further discipline but this story keeps taking wild twists and turns and it as I said new branches keep popping up here. So I guess we have to wait and see how everything unfolds but him going to counseling what kind of counseling it is I'm not quite sure but it's taking him away now from the football team and from important draft picks. This is now becoming an issue that Patriots fans it's more than just a personal matter. And quickly Ben I mean you wrote a fascinating column about double standards but not as it relates to Vrabel but rather other well-known NFL insiders who curry favor compromising their impartiality with sources to get information. Does what happened here change the way business has done at all? Probably not. I will say I don't I would never condone getting as close to sources as you know maybe Diana has but yeah I think just it what like the the sentiment of currying favor with people that you cover and it's just running rampant and I'm not the only one who thinks that. Buster Olney a longtime Major League Baseball insider went on a podcast last week and said the quid pro quo is worse than ever of reporters just allowing teams and agents and players whatever to just craft narratives and break their own news and and just kind of serve as sounding boards for the people we're supposed to be covering. So it is I think a troubling time in the media right now. I think that a lot of times the teams and the people that we're supposed to be covering have way too much control. They have their own methods of publishing now and controlling the narratives that didn't exist 20 years ago. And so it you know this situation now with Diana Rossini is I think just indicative of what I consider kind of a poison media scene in sports journalism right now. Well we'll continue to see where the story goes from here. Thank you very much.