New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel publicly acknowledged the fallout from the New York Post’s publishing photos of him with reporter Dianna Russini at a secluded Arizona resort earlier this month.

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Vrabel spoke briefly at a press conference on April 21, beginning by saying “let me first by saying thank you, thank you for your patience that you’ve shown in a personal and private matter for me and obviously everybody involved. I know that that’s not easy for you. And I respect that, and appreciate your efforts in doing so.”

“I understand I could’ve addressed you guys sooner but it was important for me to have a conversation with the players, which I did yesterday, very candidly as we begin our offseason program. … It was never my intention to have (players) speak to you before I did, so I asked (Stacey James, a Patriots spokesperson) to come today and talk with you.

“I’ve had some difficult conversations with people that I care about: my family, the organization, the coaches, the players. Those have been positive and productive. We believe in order to be successful on and off the field you have to make good decisions. That includes me. That starts with me. Never want our actions to negatively affect the team. Never want to be the cause of a distraction. Those are comments and questions that I’ve answered for the team and with the team. We’ll keep those private and to ourselves.”