An iconic Maine family is now being humorously linked to a video meme claiming that Pats coach Mike Vrabel might be the father of his mistress’ son.
TV gadfly Maury Povich, whose family came from Bar Harbor, Maine and who owns property in Bath, Maine, had a famous bit on his wild, long-running, crazy-popular show where he would exclaim “you’re the father!”
Now the latest, hottest Vrabel meme on X is speculating that the married Pats coach had a love child with his apparent girlfriend, NFL reporter Dianna Russini, in 2021.
“You’re the father!” Povich, flanked on a TV set with Vrabel and Russini sitting side by side, exclaims as Russini jumps up from her chair, hits Russini, says “I told you Mike!” and storms off the set.
Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, reposted the funny meme on his X account but he wasn’t laughing.
“Please delete. Not funny. Leave my coach alone,” he wrote.
Portnoy has been defending Vrabel on X amid New York Post publicity shots showing Vrabel and Russini allegedly being intimate at an Arizona hotel and, six years earlier, making out at a Manhattan bar.
As more and more evidence has come out suggesting that in fact the two of them were having a long-standing affair, Portnoy is finally throwing in the towel and seemingly admitting that it’s all true.
Russini has a son she aptly named Michael who X folks say was born exactly nine months after Russini in 2020 tweeted a picture of a football field connected to Vrabel.
The humorous paternity memes on X come amid Vrabel’s sudden about face about Post suggestions he and Russini have long been intimately involved.
Initially Vrabel laughed off Post photos showing him and Russini together in Arizona, then a few days later announced he was having “difficult conversations” with his wife, followed by his reporting that he was seeking psychotherapy and skipping the NFL draft because quote “my family needs me.”
Russini, who resigned abruptly as a New York Times reporter after the company began investigating her relationship with Vrabel, has stuck to her guns – ‘there was no affair.’
Now that Maury Povich is in the mix, the entertainment value of the alleged Vrabel-Russini hookups has added a fun new twist to the tryst.
“You are the father” is an iconic line that was delivered by Povich during the paternity test segment of his show, “Maury,” which ran for 31 seasons.
Povich has said that people even request he say it to them on the street. In 2023, Povich partnered with DDC, the company behind the show’s paternity tests, to launch at-home paternity tests called “The Results Are In.”
Povich is the son of famed Washington Post sports writer Shirley Povich, who was born in Bar Harbor, Maine.
The Povich presence in Bath, Maine dates to 1919 when the family, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania who settled in Maine, bought property on Front Street.
The Povich family, which still owns Front Street property, operated a clothing store there until 1994.
The MaineWire doesn’t need to do tabloid news.
Do we gain anything by this reporting? I think not. Gossip pure and simple.