Her poor husband…
At this point you’ve really gotta feel bad for Kevin Goldschmidt, the husband of Dianna Russini, after everything that’s come out about her apparent affair with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel.
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.
Of course the scandal has shown no signs of slowing down, with TMZ reporting earlier this week that Vrabel and Russini rented a private boat together in Cookeville, Tennessee back in June 2021 – while the then-ESPN reporter was pregnant with her first son, Michael.
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.
And then there have been the resurfaced clips of Russini talking about her relationship with her husband.
Last month, a clip from 2021 went viral showing the reporter calling her husband “average” when discussing why she doesn’t post about him much on social media:
“I’m married to someone average. I don’t post a lot about him. If I was married to someone beautiful, I’d overpost too.”
And just yesterday, somebody dug up another clip showing Russini making an awkward sex joke that has people feeling bad for the father of her two children.
In the resurfaced clip from 2020, Russini and Vrabel (along with others) are participating in a virtual Family Feud style game with Barstool Sports. The question was, “What is something you might close your eyes to do?”
Russini’s answer?
“When you have sex with your husband or wife.”
(The host pointed out that the questions and answers were from a kid’s version of the game).
While the rest of the contestants laughed at her answer, Vrabel simply shook his head:
The All 22 view from Coach Vrabel. pic.twitter.com/e8hC8IWhnd
— Seeing (@scrolling67) May 8, 2026
I mean, at this point you’ve gotta ask: Does Dianna Russini even like her husband? Does he have some kind of humiliation fetish or something? Every clip I’ve seen of her talking about him is just her talking crap about the poor guy.
Barstool Sports founder and president Dave Portnoy, who’s a massive New England Patriots fan and hasn’t been shy about defending Mike Vrabel, quickly tried to do damage control after the clip from his company began circulating:
I bet Vrabel and Russini can’t wait for football season either.
