NFL reporter who was fired for Dianna Russini comments… claims multiple journalists have slept with coaches and staff

When the NFL’s Mike Vrabel, head coach of the New England Patriots, stepped up to the microphones to face reporters on Wednesday, I held my breath.

It was his first news conference since April 23, the day pictures were published showing Vrabel and prominent sports reporter Dianna Russini appearing to kiss inside a dark New York City bar in 2020.

I, more than most, hoped the assembled journalists would ask Vrabel, who is married, the one perfectly valid question that remains unanswered in this scandal: Were you having an affair with a journalist covering the NFL and your organization?

Why do I want to know? Because I lost my job – in part – for attempting to blow the lid off the NFL’s open secret: that some female sports reporters, rumored to include some of the most prominent names in the business, trade sex for stories.

Eyewitnesses of the Vrabel-Russini drink date told the New York Post that they were ‘all over each other.’ But the bar pictures were just the latest incriminating snaps.

Weeks earlier, on April 7, Vrabel, 50, and Russini, 43, were photographed hugging and holding hands and were reportedly seen sharing breakfast at a luxury resort in Sedona, Arizona in late March.

Russini, who has denied having an affair with Vrabel, resigned as senior NFL insider at the New York Times’ The Athletic on April 14 amid an investigation into her conduct. But it took Vrabel, who also denied having an affair and initially dismissed the Sedona pictures as ‘laughable,’ until April 23 to announced that he’d skip day three of the NFL draft to enter a ‘counseling’ program.

‘I take accountability for my actions… This is not an easy thing for me to admit, but it is one that I know will make me a better person,’ he said.

Vrabel was back at work two days later and neither he or Russini have yet explained the nature of their relationship, while even more pictures of the pair (a private Nashville boat trip in 2021; an outing at a Mississippi casino in 2024) have been splashed across the internet.

Before I go on, let me make one thing clear: I don’t care what consenting adults do in their private lives. I do care, however, if the industry that I have dedicated my working life to since I was 15 years old and continue working within, has been tainted by corruption.

At the very least, Russini and Vrabel’s relationship creates the perception of a quid pro quo culture that pressures female journalists to trade sexual relationships with powerful male NFL employees in return for access and advancement.

The Vrabel-Russini scandal also casts suspicion over the journalists and NFL teams that do things that right way, of which there are many. That’s unfair and demoralizing – and that’s why I tweeted about Russini’s resignation from The Athletic, resulting in my termination from USA Today.

Even more disheartening, it appears that no one is particularly interested in getting to the bottom of this story.

Back in the New England Patriot news conference room the one question was never asked.

Instead, the reporters danced around the topic:

Question: ‘When we spoke to you last, you were talking about the balance of family and football. How would you describe how that process has been going?’

Vrabel: ‘Really good. I appreciate that my family is great…’

Question: ‘How have you felt the players have responded to your leadership because it was such a critical point last year? What’s your feeling?’

Vrabel: ‘I don’t want to speak for the players. I feel great…’

Question: ‘Do you anticipate having to miss football activities again for the rest of spring?’

Vrabel: ‘I can only tell you I’m going to be there today…’

Imagine for a moment if a president of the United States was suspected of having an affair. Does anyone think that they wouldn’t be grilled, repeatedly, by every reporter in that room? Why is an NFL coach be spared such scrutiny?

Frankly, I wouldn’t blame those journalists if they felt too scared to ask the question that everyone wanted to hear. I, too, would have been afraid of losing my job. I would have been fearful that the team and league, which controls which reporters are allowed into news conferences, would find a reason to never again grant me access. That could be the end of a career.

It also why, I believe, sports journalists – female and male – have been contacting me privately to express their support. These are people who are currently working for the New York Times and USA Today. I would never reveal their identities, but I suspect they appreciate that someone is finally saying something that they feel that they cannot.

So, I will write what has been whispered about for decades: that some female sports reporters and powerful male team employees trade sex for stories and that is a corruption that must be exposed.

Around 2020, I was told by a well-known national sports reporter in explicit terms that Vrabel, then coach of the Tennessee Titans, and Russini were carrying on a secret relationship. It was one of the first rumors that I heard when I began my NFL reporting career. I’d hear many more.

I’ve also been told by at least half a dozen female reporters that they have had sex with NFL staff and, in one case, a prominent NFL head coach, while they were covering the team. It takes a high degree of trust to make such a confession, so I assume that many other similar stories go untold.

Gossip about these illicit reporter-NFL employee relationships is even more prominent. Over my career the number of stories has numbered in the tens – and they have involved some of the most prominent female sports reporters and NFL coaches in the country.

I have even been propositioned myself. These conversations typically start innocently enough. A female reporter may be invited by a coach to a baseball game – but at the last moment, he offers to meet up beforehand at his hotel room.

Or a coach will remark on what a journalist wore the last time they meet and request that she wear something similar the next time they’re together.

The causal conversations are pushed just over the line of appropriateness, leaving the impression that one party is interested in more than just a purely professional relationship.

To an outside observer, there is no smoking gun evidence, but in a league rife with rumors, everyone involved knows what’s going on.

This climate breeds a culture of corruption. If female reporters don’t play by the rules of this male-dominated game, they are at a disadvantage. And if media organizations that cover the NFL refuse to recognize this while the reporters who cover the league are too intimated to investigate it, the culture will continue.