Longtime NFL reporter Dianna Russini resigned from her position at The Athletic on April 14 after pictures surfaced of her and 2025 NFL Coach of the Year Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots.
The photos were posted online on April 7 by the New York Post’s Page Six. Russini and Vrabel are pictured holding hands, hugging and sitting next to each other in a hot tub.
Russini and Vrabel were staying at the Ambiente in Sedona, Arizona, an adult-only resort. They were seen leaving the resort separately after their stay.
Both Russini and Vrabel are married. Russini has been married to Kevin Goldschmidt since 2020, and Vrabel has been married to Jen Vrabel since 1999, after meeting in college. The pair also shares two sons.
After these photos surfaced, TMZ Sports posted Russini on an old podcast talking about partying in Miami and not telling her husband because “he would judge the kind of partying” that she was up to.
“These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable,” Vrabel said to The Washington Post. “This doesn’t deserve any further response.”
The first round of the 2026 NFL draft is nearly one week away, and the Patriots are doing everything they can to keep their focus on getting back to the Super Bowl. But the scandal is unlikely to fade from public attention soon.
Many sports coaches — especially football coaches — preach integrity and off-the-field civility in locker rooms, so Vrabel’s recent scandal has drawn scrutiny.
While he seems to be unscathed at the moment, this has become a trend with Boston head coaches. Former Boston Celtics and current Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka was fired for having an affair with a staff member, in which he cheated on cultural icon Nia Long.
Bill Belichick, the former Patriots head coach who led the team to six Super Bowl wins, is currently dating a 25-year-old former cheerleader, Jordon Hudson.
Some journalists are also upset with Russini, as her journalistic integrity seems to be tarnished. Regardless of whether or not she and Vrabel had sexual relations, their relationship is a conflict of interest, damaging to public trust and potentially contributes to a loss of objectivity in reporting.
“I’m glad Russini resigned. She should,” female sports journalist pioneer Christine Brennan said on a recent podcast. “It is incumbent on the journalist, male or female, to conduct themselves in an ethical and upstanding way because their responsibility is for their readers and their listeners.”