However, some stories have much fewer elements of news and appear to become more of those crazy online events—and Mike Vrabel’s story is certainly among these stories. The story begins with a picture of the football coach who once played as a linebacker in the National Football League. According to the image, he walks around an airport store wearing his trademark hat, looking for something specific in the shelves filled with clothes.
Mike Vrabel Airport Hoodie Meme Explained Affair Joke
This post also features a very interesting caption, namely: “Sorry about the 6-year affair honey, here’s an airport hoodie 💀.”
And once again, the internet has created its own version of the story based on this information. So, the first step in analyzing the situation would be understanding which PR theory applies to this story.
As Michael Hale explains, “PR resuscitator told him to do this and make sure he was seen.” Indeed, one can easily imagine that somewhere in an office with big windows and lots of glass, a stressed out public relations specialist tries to persuade Mike to wear a hoodie because they are needed for the image of a person who can relate to ordinary citizens.
Then Mike, being as bulky as he still probably thinks every problem should be solved using physical force, gently holds a baby blue hoodie as if making a peace gesture.
But soon this situation is turned on its head by an unexpected comment by Maria Goncalves Tavares: “How do you know it’s for the wife—it could be for the side piece.” This means that this situation has gone far beyond the realm of PR theory and moved on to the sphere of storytelling.
After this point, the discussion becomes much more interesting. In particular, Cory Johnson proposes that sometimes extremely rich and popular people choose open marriages since the idea sounds rather reasonable. What if, for example, they agree that he goes wherever he wants while she maintains the facade of the devoted housewife? After all, the internet loves nothing more than speculating about the lives of celebrities as if their problems were scripts for some movies with an almost limitless budget.
At this point, another comment is made, and it turns out that the previous assumptions may be wrong. Canes Dan says that, judging from the image of him walking away from the store, “The picture of him walking away shows what appears to be the hoodie being worn by him.”
It turns out that the hoodie he bought in a store may actually belong to himself. And now, it looks even funnier than before. Instead of a complex love story, it becomes the story of Mike buying a hoodie and going straight to living the hoodie life forever.
In other words, instead of a symbolic gift that is supposed to heal all the wounds, it becomes an item that provides great comfort. Jason Gossett understands this very well and says, “If someone asked you ‘how would a linebacker handle this whole situation?’ … this is it.” And indeed, no better answer can be given since linebackers are known to use a straightforward approach to solving problems.
As mentioned above, the next part of the story goes in a completely different direction. Shauna McCoffey suggests that “Why are people assuming he bought it for his wife?”
That’s what makes it all so wonderful. It is less about relationships, Mike Vrabel’s scandals, or even Mike Vrabel himself, but rather how the internet can stretch one photo into ten realities like:
· The PR redemption arc
· The side-piece conspiracy
· The open marriage theory
· The self-care hoodie plot twist
· The linebacker method of emotional problem-solving
· All coexisting at the same time.
Honestly, the true story is the most boring one of all: he needed a hoodie, he saw a hoodie, and he bought a hoodie. But what is the fun in that?
At the end of the day, the discourse is a delightful blend of valor, betrayal, public sin, and the expectations of the new-age gentleman. The fact that it launched a million soul searching posts on the idea of the apology hoodie makes it a perfect the modern meme culture of modern Twitter.
