In return to NFL coverage, Dianna Russini doesn’t address Mike Vrabel relationship

Diana Russini returned to covering the NFL on Wednesday with a new show, but did not address the relationship with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel that cost her her perch as one of the league’s most high-profile reporters.

Seven months after the New York Post published photos of Russini and Vrabel together at an Arizona resort, and Russini resigned from her job at The Athletic amid an investigation by the outlet into her previous coverage, she announced this week a new show hosted by BetUS, an online betting sportsbook.

“The Russini Report” was scheduled to air live at 12 p.m. ET Wednesday but did not air for at least 45 minutes, when a full version of the episode was uploaded. On social media, some users said that the BetUS site would not load, or that the stream had crashed. “Well... you broke it,” wrote the X account associated with Russini’s show.

In a column on the BetUS website, Russini had written that “I have a lot to say” about her seven months away from coverage of the NFL. But when her show began, before appearances by guests including former NFL coach Bill Parcells, Russini did not address Vrabel, the nature of their relationship, or her decision to resign from The Athletic, instead offering “a personal note.”

“You know, over the last few months, I have had a lot of time to think about my life and my priorities and the person I want to be moving forward and being home in New Jersey with my husband and our two little boys and being truly present. It gave me so much perspective that I didn’t even know I needed,” Russini said.

“I’ve also had a lot of long conversations with people all around football. You know, some were about the game, and others were just about life. To the people who picked up the phone and checked in and offered both encouragement and honest advice, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Those conversations helped me find my way back to the work I love and back to myself, right here hosting the show.

“So, anyone who knows me knows I have always been obsessed with the NFL. But maybe because I wasn’t around it so much the last few months, my passion for covering this league has never been stronger. I’m so grateful, so grateful for this chance to do it again.”

Russini became a national reporter while working at ESPN before joining The Athletic in 2023, where she wrote columns, hosted a podcast and was one of the company’s most-visible and highest-paid reporters, reported the New York Times, which owns The Athletic.

Russini had not spoken publicly since issuing statements in April after the New York Post published photos of her and Vrabel together in Sedona. The Post published subsequent photos of the two in other locations. Vrabel missed the third day of the NFL draft in April to attend counseling with the Patriots’ support. After the photos were published, Vrabel told reporters at the time he’d “had some difficult conversations with people I care about — with my family, the organization, the coaches, the players.”

Less than a week after the initial Post story, Russini resigned from The Athletic, writing “I have covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication throughout my career, and I stand behind every story I have ever published” in a letter to the publication’s top editor.

An internal investigation by The Athletic ended in September and determined that although there were no clear links of bias showing that Russini’s coverage helped promote Vrabel, she had a “clear conflict of interest” that was not disclosed to her editors but should have been. “The appearances surrounding her relationship with Vrabel undermines our audience’s confidence in her impartiality,” the report’s author wrote.