Seventeen years separate two of the more unusual public statements in the history of crisis comms. One was behind a late night desk. The other in front of a wall of NFL sponsor logos. Both men facing questions about their personal conduct. Both attempting to close the matter with a prepared statement. One of them succeeded.

Whether someone in Vrabel's camp pulled up the David Letterman clip from 2009 and said ‘this is our play’ is impossible to know. But the similarities are close enough that coincidence feels like a stretch.