While focus should be on the New England Patriots heading into the 2026 season looking for redemption after a Super Bowl loss, the hot-button topic of head coach Mike Vrabel’s relationship with ex-The Athletic reporter Dianna Russini was prevalent on Tuesday.

Tight end Hunter Henry is obviously aware of the situation at hand with Vrabel, who spent Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft away from the team to seek counseling amid the Russini controversy.

But Henry, and the rest of the Patriots, are trying to focus on football as much as possible.

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“Obviously, you know, I know you guys want to hear about everything that’s going on, but to be honest with you, we’re just focused,” he told reporters on Tuesday, per Yahoo Sports. “I’m focused on what we got going on right now in this building with this team.

Henry, a team captain, added that he’s “just focused on the guys in this locker room and trying to build it from the ground up.” In other words, he’s not going to be commenting on his head coach’s off-the-field controversy.

Fellow captain Robert Spillane was also asked about Vrabel’s situation, but he echoed Henry’s sentiment.

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“Coach coaches football. He keeps the main thing the main thing,” Spillane said, per MassLive. “I know he’s dealing with personal issues. But when we’re in the building. We speak football.”

While Spillane wasn’t going to comment on others’ relationship with Vrabel, he did note that he would “be here to support him” as he believes his coach would do the same.

Vrabel spoke publicly about the Russini controversy, and he noted during his statement that he spoke with players.

“I thought he did a great job,” Henry said about Vrabel’s handling of the situation when it came out. “It’s been the same Vrabes bringing a lot of energy in the room, so, I mean, obviously, he addressed it. That’s kind of what I’ll say about it.”

New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel stands on the field before the 2026 AFC Championship Game at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on Jan. 25, 2026. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)

The Patriots released a statement before the first round of the draft this past Thursday, saying they “fully support” Vrabel.

“Mike has been open with us about his commitment to being the best version of himself for his family, this team and our fans, and we respect the steps he is taking to follow through on that commitment,” the statement read.

“We are confident in the leadership and communication Mike has established with our personnel staff throughout this pre-draft process.” 

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Vrabel was with the Patriots for the first two nights of the draft, but he stepped away for rounds 4-7 to seek counseling.

“As I said the other day, I promised my family, this organization and this team that I was going to give them the best version of me that I can possibly give them,” Vrabel said in a statement, per ESPN. 

“In order to do so, I have committed to seeking counseling, starting this weekend. This is something that I have given a lot of thought to and is something I would advise a player to do if I was counseling them.”

Vrabel also told reporters he’s had “some difficult conversations with people that I care about” regarding him and Russini being photographed together at a Sedona, Arizona, private resort in his first public comments about the controversial relationship. 

Dianna Russini, left, and Mike Vrabel, right, are shown in a split composite image featuring Russini with an ESPN microphone and Vrabel on the Titans sideline wearing a headset. (Imagn Images)

Since then, photos have surfaced from 2020 showing Vrabel and Russini kissing at a bar in New York City. The pictures exclusively obtained by the New York Post were taken in the early hours of March 11, 2020. 

“They were kissing, and they were all over each other,” an eyewitness told the outlet. “He had a ring on.”

Russini reportedly married Kevin Goldschmidt, her husband and a Shake Shack executive, six months after the photos were snapped. Goldschmidt and Russini also share two children. 

Vrabel has been married to his wife, Jen, since 1999, and they share two sons together. In the pictures, Vrabel’s wedding band is visible on his left hand while conversing with Russini. At the time, Russini was with ESPN, while Vrabel was coaching the Tennessee Titans.

 This past month, Vrabel and the former The Athletic reporter were seen holding hands and hugging at the luxury resort in Arizona. Photos of their intimate interaction were first released in April.

New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel speaks during the 2026 NFL Annual League Meeting at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Ariz., on March 31, 2026. (Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)

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 The photos showed the two sunbathing by a pool, in a hot tub and on the roof of a bungalow holding hands and embracing, which caused a league-wide uproar. Russini, the subject of an investigation by her employer, The Athletic, resigned as a result. 

Vrabel has since returned to the Patriots as they continue their offseason workout program. The team’s rookie minicamp is also slated for May 8-10.

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Pro wrestling star Steph De Lander spent two years on the shelf with a serious neck injury that required multiple surgeries and nearly derailed her career.

Last month, De Lander made her triumphant return to the ring. She appeared in Awesome Championship Wrestling (ACW) and was put in a triple-threat match against Indi Hartwell and J-Rod for the ACW Women’s Championship. When the dust cleared, De Lander was the one wearing the title around her waist.

“It felt awesome because there’s nothing like wrestling,” she told Fox News Digital when asked about her return. “There’s nothing like throwing yourself at the ground. There’s nothing like being body-slammed, right? I hadn’t been through that for so long. Initially, I was nervous about how my body was going to feel, how I was going to hold up. Is it going to hurt more than it did before? But it’s like riding a bike. Everyone says it but it’s so true.

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“As soon as I got back in the ring, as soon as I took my first bump, as soon as I took some hits, my body was just lit up in the best way. I hadn’t felt the physicality that you don’t get from anything else. I hadn’t felt that for so long. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. I’m in the phase right now of loving getting beaten up, loving getting back in the ring. My body feels great, and I definitely felt back in my element.”

De Lander described getting involved in ACW as a bit of a whirlwind.

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She said she was going to manage her husband, the pro wrestler known as Mance Warner, in a different company before WWE star Matt Cardona gave her some poignant advice.

“It was actually Matt Cardona that messaged me and was like, ‘Hey, are you wrestling this weekend? Are you cleared to wrestle yet?’ I was like, I’m cleared by I got a booking to manage Mance at a different company. And he was like, ‘Look, if you just left because you said you wanted to wrestle, you need to wrestle this weekend.’ He was like, ‘There’s an ACW show you should reach out.’ And I was like, they actually reached out to me a couple of days ago and asked if I was available, and I wasn’t,” she recalled.

Steph De Lander makes her way to the ring at an Awesome Championship Wrestling event. (Jay Adam Photography)

“After chatting with Matt, that basically made me realize this is the opportunity to have an awesome return match at a great company. Start a run at ACW. I didn’t know I was going to be winning the championship, but I just thought this would be an awesome first match back. Having my best friend Indi Hartwell in the match, it felt very poetic.”

She pulled out of the show and eventually became the new ACW women’s champion, beating Hartwell who came into the match as the titleholder.

De Lander will be back in action for ACW on May 16 for Reckoning. The event will take place at the MJN Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.

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She will be in a tag team match with Hartwell. The two will go up against Lady Frost and Vicious Vicki.

“Indi and I have been best friends for 10 years. Our careers have paralleled each other the entire time. We worked together at WWE; we worked together at TNA,” De Lander told Fox News Digital. “We worked together on the independents in Australia, in America. We keep finding ourselves coming back together. This is another one of those situations. Despite the fact that I beat her for her championship, I think we both have a mutual understanding of what needs to be done.

Steph De Lander returned to the ring at an Awesome Championship Wrestling event in March 2026. (Jay Adam Photography)

“Lady Frost is coming in for the first time at ACW so that’s a wildcard. We don’t really know what to expect to see. But yeah I think it’ll be a hard-hitting match. I think it’ll be very entertaining and exciting. Indi and I have had a lot of time together as a team. We know what we’re doing in the ring. We’ll see if we know what they’re doing, but I’m anticipating a big fight. That’s for sure.”

De Lander said it was a true delight to be able to work with her best friend, and even her husband, over the last several years.

“It’s awesome. You couldn’t write it. I’ve been lucky in my career to be able to work with a lot of my close friends,” she said. “Tagging with Indi is awesome. Getting to work alongside Matt Cardona for so long was great. Getting to work with my husband Mance Warner has been awesome too. I’ve had a lot of scenarios where I’ve been able to work really closely with people that I’m close with in real life as well, and oftentimes, that chemistry does translate. It really is a dream come true.”

With Warner winning the REVOLER World Championship over the weekend, De Lander said she and her husband have their eyes on more gold.

Steph De Lander wins the ACW Women’s Championship in March 2026. (Jay Adam Photography)

“Oh, it’s awesome. He’s been back on this new indie run for maybe a month and he’s already won the IWTV World Championship and now the REVOLVER World Championship,” she said.

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“Between the two of us, I mean, we’re gonna have to get some new display cases because we seem to be collecting gold left and right and I don’t think we’re gonna stop anytime soon.”

The playing control teams for the April 28 qualifier, April 29 eliminator 1 and May 1 eliminator 2 of the HBL Pakistan Super League 11 have been appointed, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Tuesday.

Member of ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees Sir Richard Richardson will lead the playing control team for the qualifier between Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United at the National Bank Stadium, Karachi.

Earlier, he made his HBL PSL debut as the match official on April 15 and will bow out for this season, having officiated 10 games.

Christopher Gaffaney of New Zealand will be joined by Alexander Wharf of England as an on-field umpire for the qualifier. Both are part of the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires.

Faisal Khan Aafreedi, ICC International Panel Umpire, will serve as the third Umpire, while PCB’s National Elite Panel Umpire Zulfiqar Jan will be the fourth umpire for the all-important 41st HBL PSL 11 match.

Roshan Mahanama of Sri Lanka will lead the playing control team in both eliminators.

He has the honour of officiating in all 11 HBL PSL seasons, and his tally of games as match referee in the league currently stands at 127.

In the Hyderabad Kingsmen v Multan Sultans eliminator 1 in Lahore, ICC Elite Panel Umpire Shahid Saikat from Bangladesh will join ICC Emerging Panel Umpire Asif Yaqoob as on-field Umpire, while Rashid Riaz Waqar of ICC Emerging Panel of Umpires will be the third Umpire.

Nasir Hussain of ICC International Panel of Umpires will perform duties as the fourth Umpire.

The eliminator 2 on May 1 between the winner of eliminator 1 and the losing team of qualifier will be officiated on-field by ICC Elite Panel Umpires Ahsan Raza and Shahid Saikat, while Asif Yaqoob and Rashid Riaz will carry out the duties of third and fourth Umpire, respectively.

The match officials for the highly anticipated May 3 final will be announced in due course.