Mike Vrabel had a bone to pick with The Athletic’s Dianna Russini.
During a recent appearance on the “Pardon My Take” podcast, Russini recalled getting a phone call from Vrabel and that he “wasn’t too happy” after seeing an aggregated report that apparently claimed he was “too fat to work,” which was not part of Russini’s original reporting after the Titans surprisingly fired him.
“He called me the day after an aggregator took something I said that basically said Mike Vrabel is too fat to work,” Russini said when asked if a player or coach has ever gotten mad at her over her reporting. “What I shared on [‘The Athletic Football Show’] was that I had dinner with a GM at the Senior Bowl [in February 2024] and we had conversations about how bizarre this last coaching cycle was and how crazy it was that [former Patriots coach Bill] Belichick and Vrabel didn’t have gigs.
“And I said, ‘Why do you think that Mike didn’t get a job?’ He said ‘I think they needed a change there in Tennessee but in terms of the next opportunity, I think there’s a lot of people who are very intimidated by him. He walks into a room and he’s confident and he’s physically a big human being and it’s a little startling at first.’ Very normal, right? When I say this to you? … His hands are the size of your head.”
Russini explained that her reporting was “changed” by aggregators and it “wasn’t great” hearing from Vrabel under that circumstance.
“So when the aggregators took that and changed all this, you know, the way I said it, so that wasn’t great to hear from a not-too-happy head coach, to begin with — well, former head coach now,” she said. “He didn’t call me after the piece we did on why he got fired. But the piece … calling him a little fat, he wasn’t too happy.”
Vrabel — at 6-foot-4, 261 pounds — is a former linebacker and three-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots.
The Titans fired the 48-year-old as their head coach in January after six seasons and back-to-back losing campaigns, which came as a surprise to some as Vrabel helped improved the culture in Tennessee.
During a Feb. 5 appearance on “The Athletic Football Show,” Russini, who left ESPN for The Athletic in August, discussed her conversation with an anonymous GM about Vrabel.
“I don’t think that there was a fit for him. I don’t think he sat in front of any owner who thought that his style was going to work for what they were looking for,” Russini said when asked why she didn’t believe Vrabel had a head coaching job at the time. “Do you know I had a GM at the Senior Bowl who mentioned to me Vrabel’s physical build? That he’s a very large human being and can be very intimidating to people in an organization that are going to be part of these decisions. And that is a factor.’
“Which, I laughed. I said, “Stop. That’s not something that’s real. Who cares what someone physically looks like?’
“And he said, ‘I’m just telling you, I’ve been in rooms and somebody’s physical presence can make a difference.'”
In January, Russini and Joe Rexrode of The Athletic reported that Vrabel’s Patriots reunion — when he spent the Tennessee’s bye week at the Patriots-Bills game on Oct. 22 to be inducted into New England’s Hall of Fame — didn’t sit well with Titans owner, Amy Adams Strunk.
The two never spoke of it and “she let it fester.”
A combination of “poor communication, misinterpreted statements and misunderstandings” led to Vrabel’s firing, according to The Athletic, which spoke with “nearly a dozen prominent people inside and outside the organization on the condition of anonymity.”
