After months of silence, The Athletic has finally concluded its investigation into former NFL insider Dianna Russini.
The NFL world was sent into a frenzy on April 7 when Page Six released photos of Russini spending time with Mike Vrabel at a hotel in Arizona. Despite denying any wrongdoing, TMZ later reported that Russini and Vrabel’s connection dated back to 2021. Instead of waiting for The Athletic to make a decision on her job status, Russini announced her resignation.
For nearly the past five months, The Athletic has been investigating Russini’s connection to Vrabel and whether it affected her work.
The Athletic had Mike Semel, its editorial director for standards and editorial quality, view 903 stories and 204 podcast episodes that Russini contributed on to see if she violated the publication’s standards. While her work didn’t show clear bias towards the New England Patriots and their head coach, The Athletic said her relationship with Vrabel should’ve been disclosed.
“Russini’s relationship with Vrabel was in clear violation of The Athletic’s standards,” the report states. “Regardless of whether the relationship was romantic, it was a breach and should have been disclosed.”
© Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Will Russini return to the spotlight?
One of Russini’s former colleagues, NFL insider Mike Silver, believes she’ll return to the sports media industry at some point in the near future.
“I do think she’s going to be back, probably not as an insider, at least in the short term,” Silver said. “But I think she’ll be back in this realm, probably talking about football and other things pretty soon.”
With the NFL season set to begin on Wednesday, it’ll be very interesting to see if Russini releases a statement during Week 1.
