The Athletic’s Dianna Russini has been placed on leave by the website’s parent company, The New York Times, after photos of the NFL insider holding hands with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel surfaced this week.
As told to the Daily Mail by a source familiar with The Athletic, the website began an investigation into the situation after learning of the photos, which surfaced Tuesday. Russini is not expected to publish any articles as the investigation remains ongoing, according to the source.
Meanwhile, Russini’s podcast, Scoop City, has quietly stopped dropping episodes. In a statement to AwfulAnnouncing.com, a spokesman for The Athletic said the show ‘has been in transition since the Super Bowl.’
On Tuesday, Page Six published exclusive photos showing the 50-year-old coach and 43-year-old NFL insider hugging, lounging poolside and laughing together at the $2,500-per night getaway in Sedona, Arizona. Vrabel, the reigning NFL Coach of the Year, and Russini, a top reporter for The Athletic, are married to other people with whom they share two sons.
The two have known each other for years. Russini previously covered Vrabel when he was coaching in Tennessee and she was serving as ESPN’s Titans beat reporter.
They have each issued statements confirming the March 28 interaction in Sedona, Arizona, but have denied any improper conduct.
The drama involving New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and NFL insider Dianna Russini has deepened after an unfounded cheating allegation from 2015 resurfaced
The two visited a hotel, Ambiente, which is an adults-only venue near Sedona, Arizona
‘The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day,’ Russini told FOS through The Athletic. ‘Like most journalists in the NFL, reporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.’
Interestingly, The Athletic issued its own denial after the publication, calling the photos ‘misleading’ and lacking ‘essential context,’ while defending Russini’s professionalism.
In his statement to the Post, Vrabel called the story ‘laughable.’
Spokespeople for the Times and The Athletic declined to comment to the Daily Mail for this story.
While social media has fixated on Russini’s past coverage of Vrabel, as well as her occasional complaints about her husband, a greater mystery has emerged over the source of the photos.
The two have known each other for years. Russini previously covered Vrabel when he was coaching in Tennessee and she was serving as ESPN’s Titans beat reporter
As reported by Front Office Sports, the photos were shopped around to various new agencies by someone who wasn’t a paparazzi or with a photo agency.
TMZ learned of the photographs prior to Tuesday’s publication when an anonymous tipster informed the website that Vrabel was seen at the hotel with a woman, according to FOS.
Staff at TMZ identified the woman as Russini, but while they deliberated on the requested ‘four-figure’ sum for exclusive rights, the photos were published by the Post’s Page Six, FOS reported.
Additionally, FOS added, the source is not believed to be a known paparazzi or photo agency.
TMZ did not respond to FOS’ request for comment.
While the sources connected to both parties said the two weren’t alone, Page Six reported that three separate eyewitnesses informed the outlet that neither Vrabel nor Russini were seen with anyone else.
When asked if Vrabel was with friends at the hotel, one eyewitness told the outlet, ‘No, he was with a girl.’
Per Page Six, Vrabel was at a scouting event at Arizona State University in Tempe on Friday before driving 125 miles to the adults-only hotel – which markets itself as a romantic getaway.
A source close to Russini told Page Six that she was at the hotel ‘during a hiking trip with two female pals.’
Former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho speculated on the drama on his show Speakeasy
The controversy surrounding the photographs notwithstanding, their source is actually a bigger story, according to former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho.
On his show, ‘Speakeasy’, Acho speculated: ‘Here’s what nobody is talking about in regards to Russini and Vrabel. Somebody hired a private investigator. And why is nobody discussing this? You do realize an iPhone could not zoom in from that distance.
‘You do realize that those shots – those camera shots – were very peculiar and intentional. That was not a fan that just happened to be wandering through Sedona, Arizona, and it was like, ‘Oh, is that Mike Vrabel? And who’s that mystery woman?’
‘No, that was, as the article suggested, a spy who took those shots with the camera from a distance.
‘So first and foremost, what nobody is talking about in regards to this situation – the question I’m curious about is just who hired the PI, right?
‘We are led to believe that Mike Vrabel has been married and is currently married, and Dianna Russini is currently married. Not an expert in that aspect of it, but who hired the PI is what nobody has yet to discuss.’
There is no evidence to suggest that a PI had been hired to take the photographs.
Owner Robert Kraft and his wife Dana Blumberg pose for a photograph with Mike Vrabel and his wife Jen Vrabel as Vrabel is announced as head coach of the New England Patriots
Russini dedicated a post to her husband, calling their 2020 wedding the ‘best day of my life’
Vrabel is married to his wife, Jen, whom he met while attending Ohio State. Meanwhile, Russini married her husband, Shake Shack executive Kevin Goldschmidt, in 2020.
Goldschmidt is frequently referenced by Russini on podcasts, which are now being put under the microscope by football fans and gossip hounds.
The latest clip to be unearthed online comes from a 2021 episode of ESPN’s Get Up, when Russini discussed her husband in unflattering terms.
‘I’m married to someone average,’ she said at the time. ‘I don’t post a lot about him. If I was married to someone beautiful, I’d over-post too.’
Her ESPN co-hosts later gave Russini a chance to correct herself, to which she explained: ‘We’re average together.’
Dianna Russini seen interviewing Mike Vrabel last year after he got the Patriots job
In another clip, Russini joked about having cold feet the night before her wedding while doing a phone interview with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was once voted the NFL’s ‘sexiest’ player.
‘The night before my wedding, I’m making calls and I had a phone interview set up with Jimmy Garoppolo,’ Russini told the Dan Le Batard show. ‘Jimmy was great. He made a funny joke, like: “Hey, night before your wedding, you sure you want to do this?”
‘I’m thinking, of all the people in my life that I would talk to the night before my wedding, the one guy… my mom wanted me to marry was Jimmy Garoppolo,’ she laughed.
Dianna Russini married fast food executive Kevin Goldschmidt in 2020 during the pandemic
Even Russini’s own mother has joked that her marriage is ‘falling apart,’ as the reporter told the ‘Stugotz and Company’ podcast in February.
The clue, according to Russini, was that Goldschmidt was taking better care of himself.
‘I go, “Yeah [Kevin] doesn’t seem as stressed this year,”‘ Dianna remembered saying to her mother. ‘And she goes, “You know I’m starting to think he’s got a girlfriend, and you know what? Good for him. He looks good, he’s successful, his wife’s never around. You love this football thing. That’s why he looks good.”
‘I go, “Why would you say that to me right now while I’m on a trip? That my husband has a girlfriend?”‘ Russini continued. ‘And she goes, “Ah, just keeping you on your toes, you know?”‘
Although Goldschmidt and Russini were married during the COVID-19 pandemic, she described the day as the ‘best’ of her life. As she wrote to him on Instagram for their anniversary in 2022: ‘It’s you and only you, for me, forever.’