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Mike Florio remains skeptical of Dianna Russini's reporting
Dianna Russini may be back in the spotlight of sports media — albeit a much reduced one at BetUS instead of ESPN or The Athletic — but her journalism career will never be the same. Given the scandal with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, there are colleagues out there, such as Mike Florio, who won’t be relying on it going forward.
Speaking about Dianna Russini’s return to the insider/scooping business, ProFootballTalk founder Mike Florio said he will require independent confirmation before accepting her reports due to unanswered questions about her past public statements.
Mike Florio questions Dianna Russini’s credibility following her return to NFL reporting after the Mike Vrabel scandal
Russini returned on November 11 with The Russini Report, a weekly show and column for sportsbook BetUS, roughly seven months after resigning from The Athletic.
Florio particularly revisited a story she previously told about avoiding a traffic ticket with help from an NFL coach as a reason why he’ll have a hard time trusting her reporting going forward.
While Russini’s account involved a FaceTime conversation in which the coach persuaded the officer not to issue a ticket, bodycam footage subsequently showed her displaying text messages with Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell rather than making the call she had claimed she made.
“I’m not going to get fooled again,” Florio said. “I don’t care what the reporting is. Unless and until it’s confirmed by someone who doesn’t have these credibility issues, I’m going to ignore it.”
“The whole story about getting pulled over for texting while driving, FaceTiming a coach, and the coach talked to the cop, talked the cop into not giving her a ticket. I mean, even if that’s true, if that’s true, that raises one set of issues.”
“It’s not true. It’s just not true,” he said. “And when you go back and you watch the clip where the story is told, it’s so casual and matter-of-fact.”
Asked about the subject on WEEI, a seemingly uncomfortable Adam Schefter said he would treat her reporting like anyone else’s, verifying information before publishing it himself.
“I would treat her like everybody else. I have to verify everybody’s information before I report it,” Schefter said.
Russini resigned from The Athletic in April after photographs of her with Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel became public. Over the following weeks, additional discreet photos of the pair surfaced over the course of a few years.
A subsequent internal review by The New York Times concluded that their undisclosed personal relationship violated newsroom standards.