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The Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini story has turned into a feeding frenzy, with paparazzi hounding the Patriots coach in public and salacious years-old photos of the duo hanging out in casinos and dimly lit nightspots.
For now, at least, Vrabel’s “new normal” is being stalked like a Hollywood celebrity caught in a scandal, notes ProFootballTalk. If that’s the case, the Patriots coach might want to employ some techniques that celebrities use to protect their image and reputation.
Front Office Sports spoke with two private security experts who work with NFL clients. John Scutellaro is the founder of PlayerProtect, which works with the Giants and Jets. Kent Moyer is the founder of The World Protection Group, which counts NFL owners, CEOs, and political dignitaries among its global clients.
They shared their thoughts with Front Office Sports on how Vrabel and the Patriots can handle the media firestorm and what the NFL can do to mitigate this image disaster. Among their suggestions:
Lay Low
If Vrabel thinks he can waltz around in public without bodyguards, he should think again. The 50-year-old coach is now a walking cash register for professional paparazzi and opportunistic amateurs looking to make a buck. On Saturday, a solo Vrabel was confronted with Russini questions by an aggressive “photographer” at the Salt Lake City Airport. TMZ Sports also published pics of his wife, Jen Vrabel, wearing her wedding ring, along with the blaring headline, “Wife Still Hasn’t Taken Ring Off!!!” Other paparazzi employ drones, or so-called “drone-arazzi” to obtain revealing pics.
As an NFL coach, it’s not easy for Vrabel to stay out of the spotlight. But the consistent drip of negative stories is taking its toll. For most of their lives, Vrabel and Russini probably didn’t think much about their own security. Going low profile for a few months would only help. “They have to go dark, at least for a little while,” warns Scutellaro, a former Hoboken police officer. “As long as you give them food for the fodder, they’re not going away. It’s really death by a thousand cuts at this point.”
Consult Private Security
NFL teams and the league have their own security. But Vrabel could also hire his own private security firm. These companies employ retired police officers/military personnel to accompany celebrities in public. They’re the first line of defense against pushy paparazzi, drunk fans looking for a fight and other threats. They’re experts at whisking clients into and out of fancy restaurants and events via back doors where there’s no photographers around. If paparazzi follow a celebrity’s specific car, they switch cars inside hotel parking lots they can’t access, then drive around unnoticed.
Unfortunately for Vrabel, it’s legal for paparazzi and the public to photograph him in public, warns Moyer, who handled security for Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. This is not just Vrabel’s problem, either, he adds. Organized criminal rings in Los Angeles are now targeting athletes, owners, and other wealthy individuals for home invasions.
Scrub Personal Info
There’s dozens of websites that offer physical addresses and other personal information, warns Moyer. Both Vrabel and Russini should do everything they can to safeguard their personal privacy. That could entail using outside addresses for mail and deliveries. Anonymous burner phones that can’t be traced. And employing encrypted apps.
But the process takes time. Shohei Ohtani failed to safeguard the address of his new $8 million luxury mansion in La Canada Flintridge about 10 miles north of Dodger Stadium. His new address became so widely available the baseball superstar decided to sell it without moving in. Ohtani was particularly incensed when two Japanese TV outlets sent snooping reporters to take pictures and interview his new neighbors.
“He didn’t have a security expert telling him the minute you buy that house, if it’s in your name, it’s now on 35 databases,” Moyer says. “Take Mike Vrabel. If I went on a database right now, I could get his entire physical address, his email, and probably his cell phone. Easy. Five seconds.”
Wipe Social Media
Celebrities in these crises should probably wipe their social media accounts on X/Twitter, Instagram, etc, according to Moyer. Russini, for example, deleted her account on X/Twitter last week. But Internet sleuths are still on the case. David Covucci found a Spotify song list that Russini allegedly shared with a user named “Mike” on December 19, 2022, “which just so happens to coincide with a four-game Titans losing streak,” he noted on Twitter. His tweet has drawn 16.7 million views and counting.
Notes Moyer: “It all starts with social media and their social media habits.”
Use Disguises
It sounds obvious, yet Vrabel is making zero attempts to disguise himself in public. Big mistake. A baseball hat, sunglasses, even a COVID mask go a long way toward shielding a celebrity’s identity in public. “There’s ways to walk in one way, walk out another way, where people don’t know who you are. Or you walk in wearing one thing, put a different coat on somewhere,” Scutellaro says. “You can go covert. It’s not that hard. But you have to want to do it.”
Still, all the bodyguards and consultants can’t help if the coach or athlete doesn’t listen. A lot of macho sports types don’t think they need private security, warns Moyer. There’s not much a consultant can do if they have a fool for a client.
The bottom line: There are only 32 NFL coaches. Vrabel needs to realize he’s in one of the most exclusive fraternities in sports and develop what Moyer calls a “security mindset.” Especially when everybody with an iPhone is a potential paparazzi.
After all, the original Page Six photographs that kickstarted the scandal were taken by a couple vacationing at the same adults-only Arizona resort, not a private investigator, according to TMZ. The photographer who harassed Vrabel at the airport was not a TMZ employee, although TMZ published the video.
As Moyer warns: “We’re living in an angry society. There are people that love Mike Vrabel. But then there are people that don’t like Mike Vrabel. And there are people who will do anything they can to bring him down.”
