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I really don’t want to get into the whole controversy involving a possible relationship between a reporter and the New England Patriots coach.
We are not operating TMZ or Page Six here.
But I have no issue getting into the whole world of coach-reporter information pipelines.
I’ve been writing about that for decades.
Let’s go back to something we wrote in January of 2025 in Jets Confidential Magazine after the Jets hired Aaron Glenn after interviewing Mike Vrabel (and many others):
“Even though he was a great head coaching candidate, maybe the Jets were better off without Mike Vrabel, for a few reasons.
“We all know ‘The Athletic’ has been the Jets’ worst nightmare over the last year, publishing two blockbuster stories, first in January 2023 and then in December 2025, with myriad unnamed quotes and sources, trashing the team’s football operation.
“So would you want a coach who allowed one of the authors of both articles, Zack Rosenblatt, to be embedded with him the last few months for a story in ‘The Athletic?’
“While Vrabel served as a consultant for the Cleveland Browns this past season, Rosenblatt was given behind-the-scenes access with the coach for a big feature in ‘The Athletic.’
“The reporter who was at the tip of the spear of both Jets blockbusters – Dianna Russini- is very close with Vrabel, according to a league source.
“Why would the Jets want a coach who is close with the woman who spearheaded both stories and also allowed a Jets beat writer, who was involved in both stories, to be embedded with him the last few months?”
That is word-for-word what we wrote in January, 2025.
I really don’t want to get into the Page Six photos and the brouhaha that has followed. I want to focus on media leaks and how not getting Vrabel, perhaps, was a good thing in this regard.
Those two blockbusters that Russini and Rosenblatt wrote about the Jets knocked their world off its axis for a while, including wild stuff about Madden ratings.
Don’t want to go down that rabbit hole again, but just saying that, while Vrabel is a great coach, knowing that coaching candidates seemed to be strong source to a reporter who who wrote two blockbusters about the Jets, and also, perhaps, set up the actual Jets beat reporter from “The Athletic,” being embedded with the coach during his year out of coaching for some special features, maybe it was best to avoid that candidate, just from a leak standpoint.
Some have surmised the Jets have cut down on harmful leaks under Glenn, though some might surmise it’s still a slight issue.
After it was announced that defensive coordinator Steve Wilks had been fired on December 15, 2025, a major leak issue reared its head:
“Jets defensive players had grown increasingly frustrated with Steve Wilks throughout this season,” Conner Hughes wrote on X. “Wilks’ system rebuffed player efforts to take their shot to make plays, attack. Players were told to ‘let the scheme take care of it’ because of how it worked in the past. Many players felt this held them back. One player, sources said, called out Wilks in a meeting, questioning a call and pointing out the flaws in the system.”
Wilks, a man of great character, deserved better than this, no matter what your views were of the job he did.
And how many of these defensive players are going to start for the Jets this year, considering they could have as many as 8-9 new starters on that side of the ball? While Wilks perhaps didn’t do the best job, consider how many new defensive starters they are going to have, do you think some of the issues were related to personnel? Some of these leakers should look in the mirror.
And what’s with players leaking stuff disparaging Wilks, a good man, on his way out?
But the bottom line is, no matter how great a coach Vrabel is, with clearly a proclivity to leak stuff, perhaps he wasn’t an ideal candidate for the Jets job.
April 13, 2026
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