The review nobody expected to be published
The Athletic put the results of its own internal investigation into Dianna Russini in front of readers on Thursday. Its finding: the NFL reporter broke house rules by never disclosing her relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.
“Russini’s relationship with Vrabel was a clear violation of The Athletic standards,” wrote Mike Semel, the editorial director responsible for standards. Then the line that mattered most. “Whether the relationship was romantic or not, it was a breach and should have been disclosed.”
April is where this started. The New York Post ran photos of the reporter and the coach at an Arizona resort, in settings that sat well outside the normal distance between a coach and someone covering him. The Athletic defended her at first, then suspended her. Russini, 43, resigned soon after.
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903 stories, read one by one
The harder question came second. Had any of this leaked into the work?
Semel went through everything Russini had produced since arriving from ESPN in August 2023. That came to 903 articles she wrote, co-wrote or contributed to, plus 77 videos. He sat through hours of podcasts, watched her appearances elsewhere, reread the outlet’s own Vrabel coverage and talked to her colleagues.
The numbers came back thin. Of 903 pieces, 46 mention Vrabel, the Titans or the Patriots at all. Call it 5%. About 30 of those were routine transactions, signings and staff moves. Three went into any real depth on Vrabel himself. One of the three carried her byline.
Clean reporting, damaged perception
One piece did draw a wince from Semel: a column on Vrabel’s return to Nashville with New England, which he called “awkward, even embarrassing” for how far it leaned into praise. He softened it immediately. “As glowing as the writing was, almost every outlet was positive about Vrabel’s return. That was the angle of the day.”
The context supports him. Tennessee were near the bottom of the standings having sacked Vrabel’s replacement. New England were on their way to the Super Bowl.
Which leaves the sharpest sentence in the whole report, and it has nothing to do with what she actually wrote. “The appearance of her relationship with Vrabel undermines our audience’s trust in her impartiality,” Semel wrote.
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