Journalism or voyeurism?

Patriots' coach Mike Vrabel addressed the media in Foxboro earlier this week.

I would imagine that many of you that had your spirits lifted last fall by the unexpected advancement of the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl have been following the franchise's latest peccadillo as an unwelcome development.

After all, after several seasons of futility fueled by Bill Belichick's descent into madness thanks to all that comedy with that young girl (thanks, Don Vito Corleone, for that apt description), the Patriots broke out in a big way this past season under the leadership of new coach Mike Vrabel and succeeded far beyond any reasonable expectations. The future was so bright, as the song says, you had to wear shades.

And then ... in the true spirit of Spygate, Deflategate and the Orchids of Asia, something came up that stuck a red-hot poker into the heart of that optimism. And now, the pundits have brushed off all the old tropes about the Patriots' championships being invalidated by "cheating" and other nefarious schemes that they claim have attacked the moral fiber of the nation.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the best example of what has happened to journalism in the era of the Internet, social media, and the 24-hour news cycle. It's no longer the "Five W's" that serve as the profession's guiding principles -- "who, what, when, where and why" (and you can add "how" if you like). It's the Four F's -- first and fast, and fuck factual.

Journalism in the social media era is now a rush to judgment at Warp 9. If it isn't swift and salacious, it's not worth the bandwidth.

No doubt, it's a sexy story -- with emphasis on the sex.

Former NFL reporter Dianna Russini.

Vrabel appears to have been caught in a sketchy relationship with NFL reporter Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the online news service that became the sports-news apparatus employed by The New York Times when that venerable newspaper trashed its own sports department. The two, who have apparently been friendly for many years including Vrabel's tenure as head coach of the Tennessee Titans, were photographed together at a posh resort in Arizona. The photos reveal the two grasping each other's hands and then embracing, and then lounging together in bathing suits at poolside.

OK, that may not be the normal setting between an NFL head coach and a reporter. It's not a good look, but there is no apparent evidence of hanky-panky from the photos alone. It was certainly suspicious, however. 

The photos were obviously taken by someone with a long telephoto lens whose snapshots could be taken from a position of concealment and with clear intent to find dirt on someone. The widespread speculation was that Russini's husband hired a private investigator to prove the rumors of his wife's infidelity. And it's known that the photos were shopped around to several media outlets that declined them before the smarmy New York Post gleefully seized the moment. And this, my friends, is when the feces hit the fan.

Both Russini and Vrabel first dismissed the photos as evidence of nothing more than a professional relationship. But the eyebrows of a nation had already been raised, and a tsunami of digital content inflamed the situation into a Defcon-1 national crisis. The New York Times at first defended Russini, but then reversed course and announced it was investigating her past journalism for evidence of possible unethical conduct. The NFL, meanwhile, said it had no reason to initiate any disciplinary action against Vrabel -- and that infuriated the legion of Patriots Haters that wanted the franchise to be flogged, tarred and feathered for another assault upon the sanctity of the Shrine of Football.

Russini has since resigned her job at The Atlantic/NYT, still professing her innocence. Vrabel kept a very low profile until Tuesday, when he surprised a small contingent of beat writers covering a player-availability session and made a statement. He said he had engaged in "difficult conversations with people I care about," including his family, his players and the team's ownership. He said that he had to present "the best version of me" to all parties concerned going forward. 

Some in the Boston media protested the unannounced appearance of Vrabel at a media session that many reporters blew off as unremarkable and unworthy of their presence. Their published protests came off as insincere and as evidence of being caught with their pants down for not being at the stadium, just in case something newsworthy happened. 

Yes, it was a little sneaky of the Patriots' media relations department to bring Vrabel out when it was known that there would be just a small contingent of the hardcore beat writers. Welcome to the Real World. It's been nothing new for the Patriots since 1993 to try to control the narrative. 

Belichick made the rules, and 
readers hated our complaints.

And besides, a lesson I have learned painfully is that nobody cares to read how hard it is for us journalists to do our jobs. Bill Belichick, in particular, made my life as a beat writer a living hell from 2000-18, but there was no sympathy to be found for my travails, and I should never have expected any. Many readers have a distorted view of what life as a sportswriter and columnist really is. They see us as living high off the land, served gourmet meals for free and guzzling Johnnie Walker in the press box, and they don't care to be told the truth. They just want the stories they like -- mostly positive ones about their beloved team, although most refuse to admit that they absolutely love the tabloid tales dripping with controversy. And they don't care how we get them.

And in the age of instant communication? Sex sells, and the faster you write it, the better it sells. It's all about the clicks and the views. And the facts? Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. In the meantime, enjoy the rumors and speculation.

That wasn't how it was for most of my 42 years of covering the team. I figured it was my job to cover the team. As time passed and situations arose, I had to cover some of the team's transgressions as well. But at least I never felt like a voyeur peeping into someone's privacy to get a scoop.

I have had a bit of a debate recently with a broadcast journalist whom I respect. He's been pounding away relentlessly on his podcast about the reputation of Russini and how she should never get another opportunity in sports journalism over this. And now, he's hammering away at the NFL for "covering up" another Patriots scandal and for not probing deeper into Vrabel's behavior.

I contended that Vrabel's participation in whatever happened -- and we still don't know what did happen for sure -- had nothing to do with football. I have to believe that his family's queries will be pointed and emotional (if they haven't been already). To be honest, I don't need to have a transcript of those discussions.

Kraft has his own skeletons in the closet.

What's more. it was suggested that I was responding as if I had an "affinity" for the Patriots because of my long tenure as a beat writer. I had to chuckle at that, given the number of times that I had open and public disagreements with Robert Kraft -- especially when some of his actions as team owner might have had a negative impact upon the town of Foxboro, where the stadium is located and which was prominent within the coverage sphere of my newspaper. As I said, covering the team was my job and I was happy to have it, but there's no way I could be called a fanboy in my coverage.

As for the Patriots' "cover-ups," I don't remember any. Spygate and Deflategate were debated and adjudicated publicly, often to excess. The Patriots took extreme steps to challenge Deflategate by creating a website devoted to countering the charges, which is the only time in my life when I had any need to know about the "ideal gas law." I still believe the Patriots should have just clammed up, accepted a penalty contritely, and moved on. Their reputation was harmed needlessly by their arrogance and stubbornness.

Even in the case of Kraft's notorious trips to a massage parlor in Florida, the issue became public and was the source of constant debate and ridicule for some time (and continues to be so). He got good lawyers and managed to avoid ramifications, but the Orchids of Asia will live on in Patriots infamy.

For the record, I don't know Ms. Russini. I don't believe I've ever met her, and certainly haven't in the seven years I've been off the beat. I know there are rumors about her behavior, but I learned a long time ago not to judge anyone by whatever rumors there may be -- especially female reporters, who have endured all sorts of crap and wild accusations that your run-of-the-mill male reporter would never face.

For example, many years ago I spent more than six hours giving a deposition in a law office in Cambridge, answering repeated questions about a well-known incident involving a female reporter that was harassed by players while she was interviewing others in the team's locker room. Instead of asking me questions about the specifics of the incident, I was bombarded by queries about the woman's character -- how she conducted herself among the players, was she playful and flirty with them, how did she dress, and so on. They seemed particularly fixated upon how she dressed at the team's summer training camp and whether she wore revealing clothing that might be titillating to the athletes.

Of course, she wore shorts and tank tops on days that reached the 90s in temperature. So did other women covering the team. Almost all of the male reporters wore summer attire. The women's basketball coach from the school wore tight-fitting singlets and shorts as she completed her daily fitness run throughout the campus and around the practice fields. It was the uniform of the day. But upon hearing these questions, it dawned upon me that the lawyers weren't looking for facts. They were looking to discredit the female reporter any way they could. If they could make this young woman appear to be a slut, they will have earned their inflated pay.

I recall my responses. "Yes, she wore shorts. So did (name redacted)," I said, referring to another female reporter on the beat. "So did I, and about 90 percent of the male reporters." 

The lawyers accused me of being uncooperative and marked down my responses as "unresponsive." I'm surprised I didn't end up facing contempt charges. It was a good introduction to the double standard faced by female reporters that they still face some 30 years later.

As most of you know, I did cover Mike Vrabel's career as a Patriot. I wasn't close to him as an individual. He was accessible at times, other times snarly (as typical of the Belichick Reign of Terror). I respected him immensely as a player for his ability, attitude and versatility, especially all those touchdowns he scored as a short-yardage tight end. 

Although I can only view his coaching tenure here from afar, I was pleased that he brought a different attitude to the Patriots than either Belichick or Jerod Mayo. There was accountability, yes, but the Patriots did not operate as the Wehrmacht. It was still a game and Vrabel wanted his players to have fun playing it. They improved steadily as the season progressed and while their Super Bowl appearance may have been a bit premature for their development, who couldn't be encouraged that they got there?

Accountability is a big part of Vrabel's message, and I'm sure that is resonating around the team's glowing new practice facility as the offseason workouts begin and the draft nears. No doubt, players will hold him accountable for this latest episode -- at least for a while, until the next juicy story erupts. 

People of all walks of life have short attention spans. 

This guy read the Bible on TV this week.

Jack Kennedy shtupped Marilyn Monroe while he was President. Bill Clinton got away with BJs in the Oval Office. The current occupant of the White House has cheated on all three of his wives, he would barge into the dressing rooms of the teenaged contestants of beauty pageants he owned so he could ogle them in states of undress, he has been accused of rape and was convicted in a civil trial of sexual assault, he was a frequent visitor to the private island of sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and it's widely believed that his current wife, a Slovenian model and former actress in pornographic films, was a member of Epstein's stable of escorts.

That guy is still President.

Want more? The Secretary of Defense and the Director of the FBI are accused of being raging drunks. The nation's health secretary openly admits that he stopped along the roadside to cut the penis out of a dead raccoon. The former Secretary of Homeland Security shot her dog and her husband liked to wear fake balloon boobs. A day doesn't pass in which some congressman from a Bible Belt state or a Christian pastor isn't accused of sexual assault upon children or related offenses. Meanwhile, people all over the world kill and maim on a daily basis in the name of one God or another.

But we shrug and plod ahead in our daily lives, numbed into a stupor by the torrent of salacious stories that are thrown at us every day. One candidate for the presidency had to withdraw from the race some years back because he whooped and hollered too emphatically after winning a primary. Today, it is really true that Donald Trump could do what he once said -- that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue in New York and still be elected. 

Grampy Bill and little Jordie are out for playtime.

Hey, Bill Belichick divorced his wife and mother of his children, took up with a large-breasted social butterfly who tried to re-cultivate his image, and once she started showing a little too much mileage for his tastes, he dumped her and took up with a granddaughter substitute -- all in the span of his 19 seasons as the Patriots' head coach.

"Yawn," you said. "He gave us six rings."

The point of all that is that Vrabel may be the darling of the tabloids these days, but his "offense" is a victimless crime compared to a lot else that goes on. As far as we know, he didn't sell state secrets to the Russians, Chinese or Iranians. He didn't pull off the modern-day equivalent of the Brinks Job. He hasn't turned the assets of the Patriots Foundation into a stable of Lamborghinis for himself. He's not Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He didn't turn his back on Sydney Sweeney. And on a truly serious note, he has not been accused by anyone of sexual assault or domestic violence. 

He will be held accountable -- by his wife, his children, and his team. I don't doubt that it will be a painful and emotional experience. I don't envy him. I don't know many saints in my life, and I certainly am not one.

To be honest, I don't need to know what he and Russini did or did not do, and I do not want to spend one ounce of imagination speculating about it. It's not an image I care to conjure. As for whether their alleged "pillow talk" included references to the Patriots' interest in Philadelphia wide receiver A.J. Brown, so what? I'm sure that there is no shortage of clandestine exchanges among the 32 teams, including at the coaches' meetings and league meetings. People talk. They whisper. Some get caught. Most don't. I'm not defending any of it or making any moral judgments other than to say that we are all human. We all make mistakes. Some mistakes aren't as bad as others.

Besides, it's a goddamned game. This isn't Julius and Ethel Rosenberg giving the Russians the secrets of the A-Bomb. These incessant calls for NFL investigations and further accountability and penalties are just a waste of electricity and bandwidth.

The damage has been done, but the sun will come up tomorrow -- hostilities in Iran pending. Let's move on.

MARK FARINELLA covered the Patriots for 42 years, through the best of times and the worst of times. He's not unhappy that he's not on the clock for this situation. Contact him at theownersbox2020@gmail.com