Mike Vrabel and Jen Vrabel.
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As Mike Vrabel serves as the head coach of the New England Patriots, his wife, Jen Vrabel, has also been a part of his journey.
Mike Vrabel is drawing some unwanted attention after photos emerged showing him in an intimate setting with a reporter — sparking controversy and drawing attention to Vrabel’s wife who had supported him since his career began with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Photos shared by the New York Post’s Page Six showed Vrabel and reporter Dianna Russini of The Athletic hugging and holding hands at a resort hotel in Arizona. While both Vrabel and Russini denied anything romantic and said they had a chance encounter, but the incident has drawn attention to Vrabel and his wife of nearly 30 years.
Mike Vrabel’s Wife Had Ties to the Steelers
Vrabel and wife Jen have been together for years, first meeting while they were both students at Ohio State. As People magazine noted, it was Jen who first pursued the college football star, and the two dated when Vrabel started his NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“The couple met at Ohio State University, where Jen noticed Mike in class and got his number through their professor, according to The Tennessean. After connecting, the student-athletes dated, and Jen was still in school when the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Mike in the 1997 draft,” the report noted.
“The following year, Jen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene, and by 1999, she and Mike were married. Since then, the pair have experienced several milestones together, including welcoming two children.”
Vrabel and his wife have two children together, though the former NFL linebacker turned head coach admitted that he missed out on some big moments during his career.
“I’m not proud to say this, but I’m just going to tell you about my wife. She gave birth to Carter, I missed it, I was at practice, she was in Ohio,” Vrabel told reporters in 2018. “He came early, he flipped, they had to take her. I showed up four hours late because I was playing football and she was having a baby.”
Though Vrabel spent the first four years of his career with the Steelers, he didn’t make much of an impact and had no starts. He made a total of 56 tackles with seven sacks during his four years in Pittsburgh, then went on to play eight seasons with the Patriots, winning the Super Bowl three times and earning All-Pro honors in the 2007 season.
Mike Vrabel Denied Intentionally Meeting Reporter
As Page Six reported, Vrabel and Russini said they had not planned on meeting up at the Arizona resort. Both of them insisted that they traveled there with other friends and spent time after running into each other there.
“Both Russini and Vrabel insist they were there with friends and say they simply weren’t visible in the pictures,” the report noted. “A source close to Russini says she was staying at the hotel during a hiking trip with two female pals. One of Vrabel’s friends told Page Six that they and the coach drove up to Sedona for the day with another pal and that they all drove back to their own hotel, some two hours away, after hanging out with Russini and her gang.”