New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel finally gave a statement addressing the photos published by Page Six of himself and NFL reporter Dianna Russini at a luxury hotel in Arizona.

Vrabel, who is married, spoke to reporters about the scandal on Tuesday after Russini resigned from her job at the Athletic.

Read Mike Vrabel’s full statement.

Let me first begin by saying thank you for your patience that you’ve shown in a personal and private for me and obviously everyone involved. I know that’s not easy for you, and I respect that and I appreciate your efforts in doing so.

I understand I could have addressed you sooner, but it was important to me I have a conversation with the players, which I did yesterday very candidly as we began our off-season program, which everyone is excited to be apart of.

I also don’t want to take away from the draft. This is an important time for us, our organization and the excitement and joy that those players are gonna have that we bring on our football team. They’re starting an amazing journey, one that should be celebrated as we welcome them onto our team.

With that being said, 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, you have to make good decisions. That includes me. That starts with me. We never want our actions to negatively affect the team. We never want to be the cause of a distraction. There’s comments and questions that I’ve answered for the team and with the team will keep those private and to ourselves.

I care deeply about this football team and I’m excited to coach them. I also know that I’m gonna attack each day with humility and focus.”

And what I can promise you is my family, this organization, this team, the staff, the coaches, everybody, our fans most importantly, will get the best version of me going forward. And that’s what I know and I’m excited to do that.

I wanted to address this and thank you for your patience and dealing with the private and personal matter. Thank you.