Connect with us

Latest

Are we sure Mike Vrabel will survive Russini scandal and coach Patriots this season?

Published

on

Are we sure Mike Vrabel is safe as head coach of the New England Patriots?

After the New York Post published photos of Vrabel hugging and holding hands with reporter Dianna Russini earlier this month, the assumption was that his job was not in danger. The reasoning was simple. He is paid to win football games.

Conversely, the photos raised questions about Russini’s ethical standards as a reporter. She resigned from The Athletic a week after they surfaced.

But as the story continues to spiral, there is less certainty around Vrabel’s status.

JORDON HUDSON SHARES OLD POST AIMED AT CRITICS AFTER BILL BELICHICK’S TUMULTUOUS FIRST SEASON AT UNC

Matt Cannata, CEO of Pro Football & Sports Network, predicted Tuesday that the scandal could lead to Vrabel’s resignation.

“As someone who used to work in public relations and often dealt with crisis communications, I see this whole Russini-Vrabel affair resulting in Vrabel resigning,” Cannata posted on X. “It is going to be hit after hit after hit, and then there will be one bombshell that makes it all spill over the top.”

Bombshell or not, the situation is not fading. Every few days, new photos of Vrabel and Russini surface, some dating back years.

EX-PATRIOTS STAR DEFENDS JORDON HUDSON AMID BACKLASH FOR SHUTTING DOWN INTERVIEW QUESTION

It has become a distraction.

In some circles, the scandal overshadowed the NFL Draft last week. Vrabel said he skipped the third day for “counseling” and to support his family.

Sports Illustrated reporter Albert Breer, one of the most connected insiders around the Patriots, said the situation has taken a toll.

PATRIOTS’ MIKE VRABEL CALLS OUT THOSE WHO ABUSE HANDICAP PARKING IN STARBUCKS LOT: ‘I’D SLASH THEIR TIRES’

“I can just tell you factually, he has not been the same the last two weeks in that building,” Breer said on Boston radio. “The sense I’ve gotten talking to people is the bravado and everything else, I think this has taken a chunk out of that.”

Two Patriots players were asked about Vrabel last week. Neither Hunter Henry nor Robert Spillane offered much comment.

There are even stories about an alleged Spotify playlist Russini sent Vrabel in 2022 to cheer him up, while coaching the Tennessee Titans.

BILL BELICHICK’S FAMILY WORRIED THAT JORDON HUDSON COULD BE ‘DETRIMENTAL’ TO HIS LEGACY: REPORT

Last year, Vrabel led the Patriots to the Super Bowl in his first season. Despite a roster lacking top-end talent, he established a culture of accountability and was widely viewed as a leader of men.

That image is now under strain.

Vrabel initially dismissed suggestions that his relationship with Russini was anything more than professional, calling them “laughable.” His tone has since shifted as more photos have emerged, suggesting an initial lack of honesty.

JORDON HUDSON’S FORMER CLASSMATE ‘UNSURPRISED’ BY ‘CONTROLLING TENDENCIES’ OVER BILL BELICHICK

How his players respond this season is an open question. There are legitimate concerns about whether he can command the same respect in the locker room.

It is also fair to ask how much focus he can devote to football. His name is in the news almost daily. On a personal level, he is a husband and father facing rumors of an affair with a reporter.

No one in professional sports has handled distractions better than Tom Brady. Yet even he showed signs of strain during his final season in the NFL while going through a divorce. For the first time in more than two decades, Brady could not fully block out the noise.

Vrabel will face a similar challenge as OTAs, rookie minicamps and the training camp approach.

At the outset, it was easy to argue the Patriots were better off with Vrabel coaching through the controversy. As the distractions and headlines mount, we can no longer argue that with such certainty.

The Patriots are unlikely to fire Vrabel at this stage. However, a resignation or even a leave of absence now looks like a logical outcome.

Continue Reading

Latest

Colbert calls Trump ‘authoritarian’ but rejects ‘partisan’ label in exit interview with NY Times

Published

on

As talk show host Stephen Colbert prepares to depart from his show, he condemned President Donald Trump during a Tuesday interview with The New York Times.

CBS announced in July that it had canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and that it would officially go off the air in May 2026. Liberal critics have accused CBS and Paramount of ending the show to appease Trump and receive approval for a long-planned merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media.

Colbert spoke out about the saga in a New York Times interview headlined, “Stephen Colbert Gets Ready to Hang It Up.” When asked by the Times why the FCC and Trump administration are “focused” on him, Colbert argued this is simply authoritarians being authoritarians.

“Authoritarians don’t like anybody who doesn’t give them undue dignity. Comedians are anti-authoritarian by nature. And authoritarians are never going to like anybody to laugh at them,” he said. “The number of newspeople who have said to me or Jon Stewart or any of the guys who do this, ‘God, I wish I could say what you say on air.’ And we can.”

COLBERT’S MOST PARTISAN MOMENTS AS ‘LATE SHOW’ HOST, FROM LEADING BIDEN FUNDRAISER TO DANCING WITH SCHUMER

“I think that upsets them,” he added further. “I think it might be upsetting that we really do not live in their world of principalities and powers.” 

The New York Times interviewer suggested that Colbert is one of many late-night hosts who “have become political targets,” and went on to ask, “Given how partisan late night has become, do you have any regrets that it’s gotten to this point?”

“I don’t have any problem with Trump being a Republican,” Colbert said, whose fame was launched by acting as a parody of Republican commentators on his show “The Colbert Report.” “I have a problem with Trump being a complete narcissist who is only working for his own interest and does not appear to care if the entire world burns. That’s not a partisan position.”

COLBERT SKEWERS CBS FOR DENYING DEEP-SIXING OF CANDIDATE INTERVIEW, WHILE KIMMEL HOSTS DEMOCRATIC FUNDRAISER

“I have eyeballs and ears, and I think calling late-night partisan is just roughing the ref,” he continued. “And we don’t even want to be refs, but they perceive us as refs. I reject the partisan description. Partisan means you’re never, ever going to make a joke about a Democrat, and that’s just not true. There’s just no comparison of how fertile the fields are.”

Beyond mere costs or allegedly appeasing Trump, many argue that the replacement of Colbert’s iteration of “The Late Show” appears to be a sign of the times in a changing media landscape. The sheer volume of podcasts, which appear to eclipse late-night shows, as well as other media, has weakened their ratings, although the late-night stars all have large online presences.

The final season of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was recently ripped by Variety as “not very good TV” and out of touch with everyday Americans as the host has been flattered by a parade of liberal celebrities.

When contacted by Fox News Digital, a White House spokesman replied, “Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck with no talent and terrible ratings, which is exactly why CBS canceled his show and is booting him off the airwaves.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE

Continue Reading

Latest

Former Nebraska senator battling cancer warns people have ‘stopped making babies’

Published

on

Former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse lamented how current generations have “stopped having babies” despite living in a richer world.

“What in the world is happening with the natalism crisis?” Sasse asked on “60 Minutes Overtime” Sunday. “All across the industrialized, rich world, people have just stopped having babies in the last couple of decades.”

Sasse added that, out of every demographic, only Mormons and specific Jewish populations have replacement-level birth rates, a detail he found “super weird.”

US ‘POPULATION COLLAPSE’ LOOMING AS TOXIC CHEMICALS AND DELAYED PARENTHOOD TANK BIRTH RATES, WARNS JOE ROGAN

“We’ve stopped having sex,” he said. “Sex has collapsed demographically, premarital, extramarital, marital. It is very weird. I don’t have a phone on me, but that we carry around these super devices in our pockets that have distracted us from some of the most fundamental human activities and aspirations.

“Having a baby is a bet on the future,” Sasse continued. “And almost everywhere in the world — and the world is richer and richer and richer statistically than it’s ever been — people have decided actually babies are kind of an inconvenience.

“Babies have always been an inconvenience and the most glorious thing you can do to enrich your family and to make a bet on the future,” he added. “How weird that we’ve stopped having sex. We’ve stopped making babies. We’ve decided that being distracted by a dopamine hit around Candy Crush might be a good way to spend your time. Not if you’re a full human.”

FORMER LAWMAKER DYING OF CANCER SAYS SENATE FULL OF ‘BLOWHARDS’ WHEN IT SHOULD BE GREATEST DELIBERATIVE BODY

Sasse, a Republican who represented Nebraska between 2015 and 2023, shared in December 2025 that he was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer and initially given only three to four months to live.

After beating the odds, Sasse has credited a new “miracle drug” called daraxonrasib and his faith for helping to prolong his life.

In a February interview, Sasse reflected on how his “death sentence” and his faith have reshaped his view on life and his past accomplishments.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE

“One thing I tell my kids a lot is, ‘Man, I wish I’d taken the Lord’s Day more seriously more in my life, because it’s a really good antidote to all those idolatries,'” Sasse said. 

“God smashing idols for us is a blessing, and having a death sentence is a really good way.”

Continue Reading

Latest

DHS taunts media for reporting about ‘Green Bay man’ illegal immigrant charged in vicious machete attack

Published

on

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security called out the legacy media for characterizing the perpetrator of a recent Wisconsin machete attack as a “Green Bay man” when he is actually an illegal alien from Nicaragua.

Fox News Digital has learned that David Joel Herrera-Garcia, 24, who is charged with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and armed burglary, is an illegal immigrant who was marked as a “non-enforcement priority” by the Biden administration, according to DHS.

Herrera-Garcia’s charges stem from an alleged break-in and machete attack at the home of his ex-girlfriend. Citing local reports, DHS said the Green Bay police responding to an emergency call discovered bloodied female and male victims in the early morning of April 20. The agency said that police on the scene found blood “all over the concrete” leading up to the house. The woman, Herrera-Garcia’s 23-year-old ex-girlfriend, identified him as the attacker, and he was arrested later that morning.

DHS has lodged an immigration detainer for Herrera-Garcia for the Brown County Jail to turn him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for possible deportation. The agency commented that “despite the legacy media calling Herrera-Garcia a ‘Green Bay man,’ he is in fact an illegal alien from Nicaragua.”

SANCTUARY POLICIES LET ALLEGED CHILD PREDATOR ROAM FREE UNTIL DHS MADE PORTLAND, OREGON, AIRPORT ARREST’

“Yet again, legacy media has gone to bat for a vicious criminal illegal alien allowed by the Biden administration to roam our streets and prey upon innocent people,” remarked Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.

The agency said that Herrera-Garcia allegedly used a key to enter his ex-girlfriend’s home before proceeding to beat her and repeatedly stab her and a man with a machete.

Officers responding to the emergency call applied tourniquets to the victims, who were transported to a hospital. The female victim suffered a head injury and lacerations on her hand and neck. The male victim, whose age was not given, sustained wounds on his shoulder, forearm and shin.

According to DHS, Herrera-Garcia entered the country illegally in Texas as a minor with his father in 2019. He was given a final order of removal in 2022 after he failed to appear at his immigration hearings. However, the agency said that in the final days of the Biden administration, ICE used its prosecutorial discretion to label Herrera-Garcia as a “non-enforcement priority.” The agency said that ICE under former President Joe Biden chose not to take him into custody following an arrest by local law enforcement on charges of driving without a license.

ILLEGAL MIGRANT ACCUSED OF NY DUMPSTER RAPE CAPTURED ON TEXAS BUS AS HE FLED TOWARD SOUTHERN BORDER: DA

“The Biden administration marked this criminal illegal alien as a non-enforcement priority,” said Bis.

“This is not a ‘Green Bay man.’ This is a criminal illegal alien from Nicaragua who barbarically attacked two people with a machete,” she added. “Under President Trump’s leadership, ICE lodged an arrest detainer with our local authorities to ensure this monster is never released back into our communities.”

This comes amid heightened scrutiny on jurisdictions across the country with sanctuary policies limiting cooperation with ICE.

BLUE STATE RESIDENTS ‘FLEEING IN DROVES’ AFTER ‘INSANE’ PROGRESSIVE TAKEOVER, SAYS TOP STATE ATTORNEY

Bis has previously slammed sanctuary politicians, saying that “at every step on the way to make America safe again,” they “have tried to slow ICE down and chosen to release criminals from their jails into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office and to spokespeople for Biden for comment.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2026 Political Signal