I sure hope Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel weren’t trying to escape their current situation by watching some NBA Playoff basketball.
If they were (and when I say “they,” I mean separately, of course), then they were likely surprised to see themselves during an episode of Inside the NBA. The beloved sports show is hosted by Ernie Johnson and features a panel of co-hosts including Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith. They recently moved over from TNT to ESPN, and though some thought they’d have to clean up their antics, the show that’s built around pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage has remained as zany as ever.
The most recent example of that is the show’s graphic team cooking up an absolutely absurd and hilarious image depicting the former Athletic reporter and the New England Patriots coach as Jack and Rose from The Titanic.
Before we get to that image though, you may be in need of some background information (if you’ve been living under a rock). The sports world has been enamored with the scandal that involved Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel. It all started when photos, first published by Page Six, surfaced early last month showing Vrabel holding hands and lounging in a pool with the reporter on a rooftop in Sedona, Arizona.
Obviously, that’s a problem because Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini are both married, and not to one another. As soon as those pictures came out, everything unraveled. As more and more has come out – like pictures of them kissing at a NYC bar in 2020 – the Patriots head coach started to speak apologetically, and even announced he’d be seeking out counseling (after the first two days of the NFL Draft). Russini even decided to resign from her position at The Athletic. In other words, after a short period of denying everything… all signs point towards the alleged affair being something that actually played out.
There have been plenty of crazy, alleged side stories that have come out in the weeks since those bombshell photos first dropped. Some internet sleuths seemingly found a playlist that Russini made for the Patriots head coach, an old post on X/Twitter by the sports reporter said some weird things about “Michaels in the NFL” just a few days after her son of the same name was born, a report about a car crash that initially posed Dianna as a hero (originally she was described as saving a man from his vehicle) may have been exaggerated, and an NFL employee alleged that they saw Russini and Vrabel getting handsy at the NFL combine.
And in another entrant of wild happenings, the Inside the NBA crew crafted together a “Gone Fishing” graphic poking fun at the Boston Celtics for choking away their first round playoff series and losing to the Philadelphia 76ers. On the boat from the Celtics was stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Also aboard were Boston-area figures and notable Celtics fans, like Ben Affleck, Bill Simmons, and John Krasinski.
But the eye-catching part of the graphic was the couple at the bow of boat named the S.S. Heimlich… Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini, who were positioned doing the famous pose from the 1997 blockbuster Titanic:
“‘Inside the NBA’ on ESPN includes Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel on the ‘Gone Fishing’ graphic for the Boston Celtics.”
No shame at all from the Inside the NBA crew.
In the video, you can hear them joking and tiptoeing around the “two people in the front.” Vrabel and Russini definitely caught a stray with this one, and it went over well with sports fans.
