NFL fans and gossip hounds are combing through Dianna Russini’s every utterance for clues about the league insider’s personal life after she was photographed with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel at an adults-only resort in Sedona, Arizona.
Both married with two sons apiece, the 50-year-old Vrabel and 43-year-old Russini have denied any romantic involvement after the New York Post published photos of them hugging and lounging together poolside at the exclusive adults-only resort, Ambiente. Furthermore, Russini’s website, The Athletic, issued its own denial, calling the photos ‘misleading’ and lacking ‘essential context.’
Still, that hasn’t stopped the public from digging through The Athletic reporter’s social media posts, podcast clips and footage from her days at ESPN.
The latest clip to be unearthed online comes from a 2021 episode of ESPN’s Get Up, when Russini discussed her marriage to Shake Shack executive Kevin Goldschmidt.
‘I’m married to someone average,’ she said at the time. ‘I don’t post a lot about him. If I was married to someone beautiful, I’d over-post too.’
Her ESPN co-hosts later gave Russini a chance to correct herself, to which she explained: ‘We’re average together.’
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‘And you know what the worst part is,’ she continued. ‘He sent me a text during that segment — not watching ’cause he actually works for a living — and he said, “Good luck today. Be great on Get Up.”
‘So the guy’s got a heart of gold, and here I am on national TV killing him,’ she laughed. ‘Look, we’re average together, but he makes me above average because he married me. I am so sorry, I need to really stop killing my husband on television. I’m going to be divorced by Christmas!’
In another clip, Russini joked about having cold feet the night before her wedding while doing a phone interview with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was once voted the NFL’s ‘sexiest’ player.
‘The night before my wedding, I’m making calls and I had a phone interview set up with Jimmy Garoppolo,’ Russini told the Dan Le Batard show. ‘Jimmy was great. He made a funny joke, like: “Hey, night before your wedding, you sure you want to do this?”
‘I’m thinking, of all the people in my life that I would talk to the night before my wedding, the one guy… my mom wanted me to marry was Jimmy Garoppolo,’ she laughed.
Even Russini’s own mother has joked that her marriage is ‘falling apart,’ as the reporter told the ‘Stugotz and Company’ podcast in February.
The clue, according to Russini, was that Goldschmidt was taking better care of himself.
The two visited a hotel, Ambiente, which is an adults-only venue near Sedona, Arizona
‘I go, “Yeah [Kevin] doesn’t seem as stressed this year,”‘ Dianna remembered saying to her mother. ‘And she goes, “You know I’m starting to think he’s got a girlfriend, and you know what? Good for him. He looks good, he’s successful, his wife’s never around. You love this football thing. That’s why he looks good.”
‘I go, “Why would you say that to me right now while I’m on a trip? That my husband has a girlfriend?”‘ Russini continued. ‘And she goes, “Ah, just keeping you on your toes, you know?”‘
Social media sleuths also unearthed Russini’s defense of Vrabel following his dismissal as the Titans head coach in early 2024. Despite his impressive work in Nashville, Vrabel wasn’t given a new head coaching job immediately, so Russini tried to explain that it was the former linebacker’s ‘physical build’ that may have hindered his job search.
‘I don’t think that there was a fit for him. I don’t think he sat in front of any owner who thought that his style was going to work for what they were looking for,’ she said on one of The Athletic’s podcasts.
‘Do you know, I had a GM at the Senior Bowl who mentioned to me Vrabel’s physical build? That he’s a very large human being and can be very intimidating to people in an organization that are going to be part of these decisions.
Russini is pictured interviewing Vrabel in 2019, when he was coaching the Titans
‘That is a factor. Which, I laughed. I said “stop, that’s not something that’s real. Who cares what someone physically looks like?”
‘And he said, “I’m just telling you, I’ve been in rooms and somebody’s physical presence can make a difference.”‘
Although Goldschmidt and Russini were married during the COVID-19 pandemic, she described the day as the ‘best’ of her life. As she wrote to him on Instagram for their anniversary in 2022: ‘It’s you and only you, for me, forever.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Russini as well as Vrabel’s agent for further comment on the matter.
A source close to Russini told Page Six that she was at the hotel ‘during a hiking trip with two female pals.’
Meanwhile, a friend of Vrabel’s told the outlet that they and the coach drove to Sedona for the day with a third friend – and that they all drove back to their own hotel two hours away after hanging with Russini and her friends.
Dianna Russini seen interviewing Mike Vrabel last year after he got the Patriots job
While the sources connected to both parties said the two weren’t alone, Page Six reported that three separate eyewitnesses informed the outlet that neither Vrabel nor Russini were seen with anyone else.
When asked if Vrabel was with friends at the hotel, one eyewitness told the outlet, ‘No, he was with a girl.’
Per Page Six, Vrabel was at a scouting event at Arizona State University in Tempe on Friday before driving 125 miles to the adults-only hotel – which markets itself as a romantic getaway.
Vrabel is married to his wife, Jen, who he met while they were both students at Ohio State. They have been wed for over 26 years and have two sons.
Steven Ginsberg, the executive editor of The Athletic, told the outlet: ‘These photos are misleading and lack essential context. These were public interactions in front of many people. Dianna is a premier journalist covering the NFL and we’re proud to have her at the Athletic.’
