en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Vrabel
2 corrections found
the second person to reach the Super Bowl as a player and as a coach, after only Gary Kubiak.
This is incorrect: several people had already reached — and even won — the Super Bowl as both players and head coaches before Vrabel.
Full reasoning
Multiple prior NFL figures had already made the Super Bowl as both players and head coaches, so Vrabel was not the second.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame wrote before Super Bowl LX that Vrabel could become only the fifth person to win the Super Bowl as both a player and a head coach, specifically naming Mike Ditka, Tony Dungy, Tom Flores, and Doug Pederson as predecessors. If four people had already won a Super Bowl as both player and head coach, then Vrabel could not have been only the second person even to reach the Super Bowl in both roles.
A team historical page from the Raiders also confirms that Tom Flores had already done this long before Vrabel: it says Flores won a Super Bowl as a backup quarterback with Kansas City and later won two more as Raiders head coach.
So the article's "after only Gary Kubiak" wording is demonstrably wrong because there were several earlier examples besides Kubiak.
2 sources
- Super Bowl LX preview: Hall of Famers' records in sight | Pro Football Hall of Fame
"Vrabel also can become only the fifth person in NFL history to win the Super Bowl as both a player and a head coach, following Pro Football Hall of Famers MIKE DITKA, TONY DUNGY and TOM FLORES as well as Doug Pederson."
- Tom Flores - All-Time Roster - History | Raiders.com
"He won his first Super Bowl title as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs as a backup QB in 1969. Flores led the Silver and Black to two Super Bowl wins as head coach - Super Bowl XV over Philadelphia and Super Bowl XVIII over Washington."
after photos were published of him kissing Russini in a bar in 2021.
The bar photos were reported as being from March 11, 2020, not 2021.
Full reasoning
The year in this claim is wrong.
Coverage of the newly surfaced bar photos says they were taken in the early hours of March 11, 2020. Front Office Sports, summarizing the Page Six publication, reports that the photos were from March 11, 2020, when Vrabel was coaching the Titans and Russini was at ESPN. The Daily Beast likewise states that the photos were dated March 11, 2020, at Tribeca Tavern in New York.
So while the article is referring to real photos, it misdates them by a full year: the reporting says 2020, not 2021.
2 sources
- New Photos of Vrabel, Russini at NYC Bar Leak Hours Before Draft | Front Office Sports
"According to the Post, the newly released photos were taken in the early hours of March 11, 2020, when Vrabel was the head coach of the Titans and Russini was working for ESPN."
- Married Patriots Head Coach Mike Vrabel Caught Kissing NFL Reporter Dianna Russini in New Photos | The Daily Beast
"In photos dated March 11, 2020, at Tribeca Tavern, Russini's legs appear between Vrabel's as he holds her arm... In another photo, Vrabel seems to lean in to kiss the NFL reporter."