Vrabel and Russini

[Jamalisms]

Just now, Mythos27 said:

I think for most people it's just something about the intersection of cultural taboos around sex and journalistic standards that has most people in a blender though. 

 

I agree. A lot of the reason she gets treated worse than whoever it was that got caught having a source edit his work (big journalistic no no) is because of the taboo of sex. It's not about the journalism.

 

I also think a male reporter sleeping with a female coach would be way, way less a scandal ... so gender comes into it. But even I don't care to discuss that beyond mentioning it.

[IsntLifeFunny]

3 hours ago, headhunter said:

It's starting to snowball

Tried to tell you guys. 

[Mythos27]

5 minutes ago, Alcibiades said:

The distinction between 'moral' and 'ethical' which sports journalists are throwing around is pretty arbitrary. But since it's framed that way, and the use (in this case) is that morals are your personal views and ethics is more of an external/social constraint, I'm STILL not sure why people are saying Vrabel violated one (morals) but not the other (ethics). First, we don't know his personal morals. Maybe he's OK with sleeping with people outside his marriage. Maybe his wife is too. But regardless, IF (and we don't know...but it's been suggested) he was using his connection to a reporter to plant stories that favored his team, that seem unethical to me in a pretty similar way to her using her relationship with him to get scoops. 

 

Again, we don't know. Maybe they were just really into each other, and some pillow talk happened, without either one explicitly USING the other for any bigger purposes. Maybe they just like each other and like boning. But I'm not sure why we are giving the benefit of doubt to Vrabel saying he's just cheating on his wife, but not Russini. 

 

As for Vrabel avoiding questions...as I said after the SB, he's a bully. Bullies love using their power over others, but they HATE having to answer to their own weaknesses.  

I'm certainly not giving him any benefit of the doubt. In my eyes he's just as morally and ethically culpable as her. The ONLY distinction to me is how that violation of boundaries affects their ability to do their respective jobs. For Russini it directly affects her because her job relies 100% on her credibility whereas with Vrabel, bad moral character does not directly preclude you from being a good football coach. She had more to lose and is a fool is she didn't realize that. 

[abenjami]

I think there is a ton of overreaction going on about this situation.

 

A man and a woman who work in the same industry hooked up.  Big fucking deal.  This literally happens thousands of times a day in all types of industries.  And I am guessing if neither of them was married, this wouldn't be much of a story at all and the media would be portraying it as cute. 

 

As far as Russini crossing some kind of ethical line, she's a fucking journalist and he's a coach of a football team.  Let's stop trying to pretend this is akin to a psychologist sleeping with his or her patient because it's not even close to being in the same realm.

 

Now if you want to pass judgment on them because they are married and you believe they are cheating on their spouses, that's fine with me.  Just realize you are making the assumption they are in traditional monogamous relationships and not involved in swinging, ENM or having a hall pass.

[Mythos27]

2 minutes ago, IsntLifeFunny said:

Tried to tell you guys. 

We've disagreed somewhat on this so I'm curious; what do you think ultimately happens to Vrabel in the short term?

[Jamalisms]

@Justafanhow about me trying to vocalize the point this way? Does it better explain things or do your objections remain the same / maybe even grow?

 

People are way more comfortable saying Russini (allegedly) used sexual favors to facilitate her career than they are comfortable saying men in power are accepting sexual favors as a facilitation of opening doors to her. I find that troubling.

[IsntLifeFunny]

4 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

We've disagreed somewhat on this so I'm curious; what do you think ultimately happens to Vrabel in the short term?

He isn't getting fired for it. That's never been my contention. It's that it will hound him, bother him, distract him, and when he is fired in the next few years that he'll never coach in the NFL again. And that this will haunt him for the rest of his life. 

 

It isn't going away as many people originally said. This is now a part of his story as a coach and as a person. 

Edited 18 hours ago by IsntLifeFunny

[Mythos27]

11 minutes ago, abenjami said:

I think there is a ton of overreaction going on about this situation.

 

A man and a woman who work in the same industry hooked up.  Big fucking deal.  This literally happens thousands of times a day in all types of industries.  And I am guessing if neither of them was married, this wouldn't be much of a story at all and the media would be portraying it as cute. 

 

As far as Russini crossing some kind of ethical line, she's a fucking journalist and he's a coach of a football team.  Let's stop trying to pretend this is akin to a psychologist sleeping with his or her patient because it's not even close to being in the same realm.

 

Now if you want to pass judgment on them because they are married and you believe they are cheating on their spouses, that's fine with me.  Just realize you are making the assumption they are in traditional monogamous relationships and not involved in swinging, ENM or having a hall pass.

At the risk of being political, part of the blow up is that we're in a really tough media environment. For better or worse people are more skeptical and critical of media and media figures than at any point in our history and scandals like this feed the feeling that many already had that there exists a world where all the media figures are crooked/compromised and pushing their own agenda. 

 

There is also, I'm sure, a feeling of betrayal for some. If you liked/trusted Russini's repoting, which I certainly did, you did so with the implicit understanding that's she's shooting you straight, accurate information at least to the best of her ability and the information was acquired through legitimate means. I'm not going to feel good reading a report knowing that the journalist got their back blown out to get the info. 

Edited 18 hours ago by Mythos27

[Jamalisms]

So, Vrabel "needs" to address this with the team. What does he say? That he slept with her or does he deny it? I bet neither.

 

I bet all he says (if he says anything to the team at all) is that here's an example of how careful you have to be because even appearances can escalate and be a distraction. He'll make himself the victim to hammer home how easy it is to misstep. Done, over, no real burden to him.

[Mythos27]

4 minutes ago, IsntLifeFunny said:

He isn't getting fired for it. That's never been my contention. It's that it will hound him, bother him, distract him, and when he is fired in the next few years that he'll never coach in the NFL again. And that this will haunt him for the rest of his life. 

 

It isn't going away as many people originally said. This is now a part of his story as a coach and as a person. 

I get you now. You may turn out to be right and if he starts losing, you will definitely be right. If he has anywhere the success he had this season though, I'd give it a 90% chance you're wrong. 

[Justafan]

7 minutes ago, Jamalisms said:

@Justafanhow about me trying to vocalize the point this way? Does it better explain things or do your objections remain the same / maybe even grow?

 

People are way more comfortable saying Russini (allegedly) used sexual favors to facilitate her career than they are comfortable saying men in power are accepting sexual favors as a facilitation of opening doors to her. I find that troubling.

My stance is what it has always been. The behavior of both of them is reprehensible. People will judge in their own ways, and we'll disagree on that, which I'm comfortable with. 
 

What I take issue with is the take that people want to paint Russini as a victim to make a moral argument for women on a larger scale. I think the reasons for doing so are both disengenous and misplaced. 

[IsntLifeFunny]

9 minutes ago, abenjami said:

I think there is a ton of overreaction going on about this situation.

 

A man and a woman who work in the same industry hooked up.  Big fucking deal.  This literally happens thousands of times a day in all types of industries.  And I am guessing if neither of them was married, this wouldn't be much of a story at all and the media would be portraying it as cute. 

 

As far as Russini crossing some kind of ethical line, she's a fucking journalist and he's a coach of a football team.  Let's stop trying to pretend this is akin to a psychologist sleeping with his or her patient because it's not even close to being in the same realm.

 

Now if you want to pass judgment on them because they are married and you believe they are cheating on their spouses, that's fine with me.  Just realize you are making the assumption they are in traditional monogamous relationships and not involved in swinging, ENM or having a hall pass.

Nah. I mean, I don't personally care about the situation, but the internet does, which has opened the can of worms. Vrabel is now ducking out of press conferences and the lady resigned over it. It isn't some huge deal. But it's unethical in a way that is novel in terms of news. Banging a chick who reports on you is something I'm sure that's happened. Having a full blown emotional relationship with a reporter to the point of romantic getaways in Sedona while she's your front woman in the media is something that's never as far as I'm aware of happened in the NFL...or any other professional sport. 

 

It's a big deal because of the lack of ethics, the timing, and the novelty. And it isn't going anywhere. 

[IsntLifeFunny]

3 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

I get you now. You may turn out to be right and if he starts losing, you will definitely be right. If he has anywhere the success he had this season though, I'd give it a 90% chance you're wrong. 

You know me well enough that I'm never wrong until I am in which case I admit I was and laugh about it...which is 10% of the time

[ctm]

6 minutes ago, Jamalisms said:

So, Vrabel "needs" to address this with the team. What does he say? That he slept with her or does he deny it? I bet neither.

 

I bet all he says (if he says anything to the team at all) is that here's an example of how careful you have to be because even appearances can escalate and be a distraction. He'll make himself the victim to hammer home how easy it is to misstep. Done, over, no real burden to him.

 

Publicly, Vrabel has kept his stance brief. “These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable,” he said

 

Vrabel has already lied about what happened and most everyone, including the players, know it.  He has zero credibility.

Edited 17 hours ago by ctm

[TF_Titan]

9 minutes ago, Jamalisms said:

o, Vrabel "needs" to address this with the team. What does he say? That he slept with her or does he deny it? I bet neither.

 

I expect Vrabel to mostly get high fives in the locker room. I guess that's sort of addressing it.