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The Jets didn’t see this year’s NFL season turn out as they had hoped thanks to the injury that forced Zach Wilson to try (and fail) to fill the void created in the absence of Aaron Rodgers. Now, veteran insider Dianna Russini says she’s been subjected to harassment from fans of the team who weren’t thrilled with a report concerning the struggling QB.
The New York Jets were obviously hoping Zach Wilson had what it took to be a franchise quarterback in the NFL when they selected him with the second overall pick in the draft in 2021, but based on what we’ve seen since then, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.
The franchise essentially admitted as much when it traded for Aaron Rodgers in the offseason, but as you likely know, they ended up right where they started after the veteran QB was (presumably) sidelined for the rest of the year after tearing his Achilles before he completed a single pass.
The Jets went 3-6 with Wilson as a starter before he was demoted to the third string behind Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian, but after that experiment failed to work out, the team decided to reverse course ahead of its showdown with the Texans.
However, earlier this week, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported Wilson was “reluctant” to return as the starter after he was unceremoniously kicked to the curb. That development sparked a fair amount of drama, as Rodgers called her out for supposedly making up the story and Wilson denied that was ever the case upon returning to his original role.
Russini has stood by her claim, and on Friday morning, she chatted with Dan LeBetard about the “horrendous” week she’s experienced thanks in no small part to Jets fans who apparently haven’t been afraid to tell her what they think about her reporting.
Here’s some of what she had to say about the fallout (the segment in question kicks off around the 40-minute mark):
“I live in the New York market so I’m in the vortex of it all, so I get to hear it and also hear from Jets fans when I drop my kids off at daycare…
I realized over the past few days it’s not that they don’t believe the report is accurate. They know the report is accurate, the story is just unbelievable, and I think that’s the issue…
[I’ve heard] ‘Die,’ ‘I hope you get hit by a car.’ There’s been a lot of traffic outside my house—I don’t know if it’s Jets fans —but it seems very busy. I think people just want to blame someone, you know?
And I understand it, but at the end of the day, if I was a fan and there were reporters covering a team able to give you everything that’s happening and give you the truth, I would appreciate it.”
It should go without saying that wishing death upon a reporter for writing something you don’t want to hear is uncalled for, but some people apparently still need that reminder.