I mean, these two weren’t even trying to hide it.
At this point I’m not really sure how it took this long for us to find out about the apparent relationship between New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and now-former NFL reporter from The Athletic, Dianna Russini.
The scandal first erupted back in April when Page Six shared photos of the two holding hands, hugging, and lounging in a pool together at an adults-only resort in Sedona, Arizona.
Obviously that’s a problem for a few reasons: Most importantly, they’re both married – and not to each other. And it was also apparently a concern for Russini’s employer, given the fact that her job is to cover the NFL and she was (allegedly) having a relationship with the head coach of one of the teams she’s tasked with covering.
After initially standing by their reporter, The Athletic later announced an investigation into the allegations, which led Russini to resign from the New York Times-owned publication. Vrabel, meanwhile, admitted to having some “difficult conversations” with his family, and missed the third day of the 2026 NFL Draft after announcing that he would be seeking counseling. (Apparently his marriage is worth a 4-7 round pick, but not a 1-3 rounder).
But since those initial photos, it’s been a constant leak of information and photos that have given us a better picture of the (alleged) relationship between the two.
There were photos of the two kissing at an NYC bar as far back as 2020, and an NFL employee alleging that they saw the two getting handsy at a bar earlier this year during the NFL combine. There was also a Spotify playlist uncovered by internet sleuths that was created by Russini and shared with somebody named “Mike” (which, to be clear, is not her husband’s name) that was created during a particularly tough losing streak for Vrabel while he was serving as head coach of the Tennessee Titans.
Russini was also forced to delete her Twitter after people kept digging up her old tweets that made things look worse and worse – like one she posted shortly after the birth of her son Michael in 2021 wondering about other “Michaels” in the NFL:
“Keep looking at my almost 4 day old son Michael while trying to figure out who are the best Michaels to ever play and coach in the NFL?”
Wild.
Well unfortunately for the two, who are no doubt hoping that this story will eventually die down, the slow drip of new revelations just keeps going.
Today, TMZ reported that Vrabel and Russini rented a private boat together in Cookeville, Tennessee, about an hour and a half outside of Nashville, back in June 2021 – while the then-ESPN reporter was pregnant with her first son, Michael.
I mean, you can’t make this up.
TMZ shared photos of the waivers that they signed before heading out on the boat, and Vrabel even posed for a picture with the staff (remember, he was a pretty big deal at the time as the coach for the Titans), though he reportedly told them not to post it on social media.
And in case there was any confusion, TMZ’s source also clarified that it was just the two of them on the boat.
Naturally, the internet had plenty of jokes about the newest revelation:
Honestly, at this point, you’ve almost gotta respect just how brazen they were. The only thing that’s even surprising now is that it took this long for all of this to come out.
