“What Did Mike Get Dianna?” – Harmless Mother’s Day Post Goes Horribly Wrong For The New England Patriots

Aaron Ryan·
CULTURESPORTS
·
Dianna Russini Mike Vrabel
The Athletic

Yeah, they probably should have thought that one through.

First of all, happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. The hardest working women in the world who don’t get near the recognition they deserve for all that they do.

So you can’t really blame the New England Patriots for wanting to share their own Mother’s Day wishes today.

But unfortunately, the seemingly-harmless post has taken a horribly wrong – yet predictable – turn.

Of course the Patriots are currently dealing with the scandal surrounding their head coach, Mike Vrabel, and his relationship with now-former NFL reporter for 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.

Of course the scandal has shown no signs of slowing down, with TMZ reporting last 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.

So naturally, the fact that Vrabel and Russini were apparently carrying on with their affair while she was pregnant with her son has led to plenty of jokes on their Mother’s Day post, given their coach’s apparent affinity for moms:

Brutal. Maybe they should have just taken this holiday off.

A beer bottle on a dock

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