Michael Irvin Defends Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini Against Critics

Super Bowl champion and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin has a message for critics of New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and former The Athletic reporter Dianna Russini.

Irvin, 60, said people should look at their own issues before attacking others. "We all want to jump in personal lives," Irvin said on The Ariel Helwani Show.

"Dude, if I just get a peek at your history, I’m sure it’ll tell me something. We all forget that we have done s--- when we’re talking about somebody else, and then we want to castrate and kill them."

The Dallas Cowboys legend said people do not know what Vrabel and Russini face, yet they attack the pair. "Life happens," Irvin said. "We’re trying to use people in football to be the measuring stick for all the righteousness. And then we act like, ‘I can’t believe this person did this.’ It’s a person, and people do things. Sometimes it’s not right, but we’re not in their homes."

"We don’t know what they’re dealing with. And we wanna sit here and say, ‘Man, they shouldn’t do this.’ You don’t know what they’re dealing with. Get out of it. Leave it alone. It’s not your business."

Vrabel married his wife, Jen, in 1999. They have two sons. Russini married her husband, Kevin Goldschmidt, in 2020. They have two children.

The pair was seen holding hands and hugging at a luxury hotel in Arizona in March. Photos surfaced first in April. Vrabel called the images a "completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable." He said the photos do not show the group of six people who hung out that day.

"The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day," Russini said.

More photos of the pair together have leaked. Russini resigned from The Athletic. Vrabel stepped away from the Patriots indefinitely during the final round of the NFL Draft to seek counseling and be with his family.