Dianna Russini and America’s Fascination with Sports Personalities
From press conference etiquette and verbal jabs to alleged affairs, sports media drama sparks hot gossip.
By Carron J. Phillips
The public loves it when the people who give the news become the news.
Amid war, the dawn of a new Major League Baseball season, and the start of the NBA Playoffs, people are talking about a story of far lesser importance. The rumored affair between an NFL reporter and a football coach is the latest example of how easily the public’s curiosity can be piqued by behind-the-scenes drama involving prominent sports media members.
When the New York Post’s Page Six released photos last week of NFL reporter Dianna Russini and New England Patriots Head Coach Mike Vrabel holding hands and spending time together at a resort, you can imagine what ensued — especially because both are married. After initially publicly supporting their employee, The Athletic and the New York Times began an investigation focused on the conduct between Russini and Vrabel.
Russini resigned a week after the photos were published.
“I have covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication throughout my career, and I stand behind every story I have ever published,” she wrote in a letter to The Athletic Executive Editor Steven Ginsberg. “When the Page Six item first appeared, The Athletic supported me unequivocally, expressed confidence in my work and pride in my journalism. For that I am grateful. In the days that followed, unfortunately, commentators in various media have engaged in self-feeding speculation that is simply unmoored from the facts Moreover, this media frenzy is hurtling forward without regard for the review process The Athletic is trying to complete. It continues to escalate, fueled by repeated leaks, and I have no interest in submitting to a public inquiry that has already caused far more damage than I am willing to accept,” she continued.
“Rather than allowing this to continue, I have decided to step aside now — before my current contract expires on June 30. I do so not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career.”
Professors in journalism ethics classes will be teaching this for decades.
“There is an integrity issue because what she can put out as unnamed sources, being Mike Vrabel, right, could impact what the Patriots are able to do and whatnot, and that is a slippery slope that’s really bad,” said FOX Sports Radio’s Rob Parker, who called for Russini to be fired before she announced her resignation. “To all the female sportswriters who I know and have worked side-by-side with, I feel bad because this is always the pushback about women being in this business…. It’s unfair.”
Though the situation has provided, and will continue to, endless material for social media discussions and podcasts, Russini’s career is at a crucial juncture. Men tend to survive things like this; women don’t. And as The Athletic investigates, it feels like Vrabel has been shielded by his bosses. As the NFL Draft approaches, Vrabel did not take part in the team’s pre-draft press conference, although reports indicated that was decided before the photos were released.
The discomfort transcends the involved parties.
“Everybody’s asking me about Dianna Russini, wanting me to say something about Dianna Russini, and I’m like really uncomfortable,” sports commentator Dan Le Batard said on his show after the photos were released. “I’m really uncomfortable with all of this and sort of the dirtiness of what my profession has become.”
The relationships between notable sports personalities in the sports media landscape are often close ones, given that there’s so much crossover on the path to stardom and how the industry is structured. And through it may be uneasy for some to speak on the public matters of their friends and colleagues, it’s also disingenuous to stay silent.
Tiger Woods’ extramarital affairs were free game. When Vrabel’s employer, Patriots’ owner Bob Kraft, was charged in 2019 for two counts of first-degree solicitation after a videotape revealed he received oral and manual sex from women at a massage parlor, it was front-page news. Similarly, when former University of Michigan head football coach Sherrone Moore was arrested for a domestic incident, there was no shortage of hot takes. Just this week, Moore was sentenced to 18 months of probation on misdemeanor charges.
When your job is to report or give your opinion on the news, then that’s what you have to do, despite how bewildering that idea may be in an industry where “not becoming the story” is the first rule.
“I am amazed at how many people are able to make a living covering us,” sports commentator Bomani Jones recently said on his podcast. “I can name people that make a living talking about me,” he joked. “It floors me that people care that much, particularly about sports media.”
Ironically, Jones’ comments were not aimed at Russini and Vrabel; he was addressing the latest chapter in the ongoing feud between ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and sports commentator Jason Whitlock. “In Smith, Whitlock has found an easy, high-value target. Smith can’t help but pay attention to what is said about him. Too often, he will give the criticisms airtime. It’s an affliction that is way too common these days amongst ESPN stars,” Demetri Ravanos recently wrote for Awful Announcing, a site dedicated to covering sports media.
Last year, former FOX Sports host Joy Taylor was at the center of a sports media scandal when she was accused of contributing to the toxic and misogynistic antics in the industry when it was alleged in a lawsuit that she rose to prominence by sleeping her way to the top. Earlier this year, Lynn Jones, a local reporter in Jacksonville, Fla., became a trending topic when she broke sports journalism protocol by giving Jaguars first-year head coach Liam Coen a pep talk instead of asking a question after the Jaguars lost in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
In the “old days,” personal drama, gossip, and beefs among sports personalities were confined to the sports media industry. Now they must treat familiar faces like the ones they cover in sports. It’s harder when your words can harm your friends.
In every era of sports media, the public has played a huge part in who and what is covered, as audience demand dictates coverage. Over the past few years, it has become clear that gossip and drama connected to sports personalities is coveted. It’s a wake-up call for those who need to do some house cleaning — and a reminder to aspiring journalists about the importance of keeping your nose clean.
Carron J. Phillips is an award-winning journalist who writes on race, culture, social issues, politics, and sports. He hails from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a graduate of Morehouse College and Syracuse University. Follow his personal Substack to keep up with more of his work.
If what's shown in those pictures is all there was to it, it does not prove a full-blown affair to me.
But even if it was, why is it always the female who loses/has to give up her job, while the male goes merrily along his way? I, for one, am sick of it.
This is a side interest to me, so this post I’m writing is OFF TOPIC. I apologize to the purists.
But we must all see that the sports industry exists to provide ODDS for the GAMBLING INDUSTRY, and for no other reason.
That is it. That is all it is.
Sports teams do not deserve their fans. The teams exist to generate more interesting ODDS for the GAMBLING INDUSTRY, not to win games for their fans.
It’s all clown wrestling from here on out. Mud wrestling. “Professional” wrestling.
Sports teams are training grounds for shows that generate GAMBLING ODDS.