Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
NFL insider Dianna Russini during her time at ESPN
It’s been more than six months since NFL fans were treated to some major drama after some pictures of Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel raised plenty of questions about their relationship. The former resigned from her job at The Athletic as a result, but she is reportedly on the verge of staging a comeback after getting a new gig.
At this point, I feel like the only way you’re not aware of the scandal involving NFL insider Dianna Russini and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel is if you recently emerged from a coma you’d been in since the start of April, which is when pictures of the two of them hanging out at a hotel in Arizona strongly suggested their relationship was not strictly a professional one.
At this point, there are still a number of unanswered questions about the alleged affair between the reporter and the coach (who were—and are still—married to other people). Vrabel alluded to potential misdeeds while addressing the matter, while Russini has asserted there is additional (but still unspecified) context that makes the situation less scandalous than it appears.
She nonetheless resigned from her job at The Athletic, which determined she was “in clear violation” of its standards after conducting an internal review of her work.
Over the past couple of months, there have been a number of reports that suggested Russini was preparing to bounce back and take a new job, and it now sounds like it’s only a matter of time until she announces her next move.
Diani Russini is preparing to start a new job with an unspecified outlet
The Athletic didn’t find any evidence that suggested Russini’s relationship with Vrabel undermined the work she did for the outlet, as the editor who conducted the review noted the “vast majority of Russini’s work for The Athletic had nothing to do with Vrabel” and there was no “clear link to conclude that Russini used her platform to help promote” him.
She’ll undoubtedly be followed by the scandal for the rest of her career, and while she referred to herself as an “ex-journalist” while discussing the situation with another reporter in June, it appears she’s preparing to drop that hyphenated prefix in the near future.
On Wednesday, Pro Football Talk cited a source who said Russini had been reaching out to people around the NFL to alert them to her imminent return to the media world, saying she is preparing to start working a new job next week.
At this point, it’s unclear who her new employer is (assuming she’s not opting for the independent route). Barstool Sports has been cited as a potential frontrunner, and Jon “Stugotz” Weiner initially offered to bring her into the fold in the wake of the scandal.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.