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Dianna Russini on the red carpet
Dianna Russini is speaking out months after being at the center of one of the year’s biggest NFL scandals.
Six months ago, Russini resigned from The Athletic after photos revealed she was having an inappropriate relationship with one of her subjects, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.
On Monday, Russini spoke with People about what she’s endured over the last six months.
Via People
“The best way to describe what the last six months were like for me is heartbreaking,” Russini tells PEOPLE exclusively. “At the beginning of this, it was a nightmare.”
“The absolute best part of this situation has been the loyalty the NFL has shown me,” Russini says. “They checked in with me almost daily while I wasn’t working to make sure that I was staying connected to football, to check on me as a person and to just see how I was doing.”
Russini says she and her husband stopped reading about the rumors months ago.
“The lies became so out of control,” Russini claims. “This was a runaway train, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Once we realized nothing was going to stop this, it became unhealthy for us to read it because it wasn’t helping us heal. It was piling on and adding to what we were already dealing with.”
The former ESPN host has a new NFL show with BetUSTV that will debut on November 11th.
“It’s really going to be a show about everything I know that’s going on in the NFL,” Russini says, “along with a lot of my opinions,” describing the latter as “something I wasn’t really allowed to do before.”
OFFICIAL: Dianna Russini is back with a new show, called The Russini Report, premiering Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 12 p.m. ET on BetUS Tv. https://t.co/ZdVqeOiGSc
— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) November 9, 2026
Apparently Russini will not discuss the Vrabel affair on her show.
@FReichComeback We’re adding a football show, not a rumor mill. Dianna’s here to talk football. That’s the play.
— The Russini Report (@RussiniReport) November 9, 2026