NFL insider Dianna Russini reflected on “the nightmare” aftermath of her and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel’s photo scandal that broke in March and led to her resigning from The Athletic.
During an interview with People, published on Monday, Russini explained that her husband, Kevin Goldschmidt, supported her through the “heartbreaking” matter — and she revealed her return to sports media.
“The best way to describe what the last six months were like for me is heartbreaking,” Russini said. “At the beginning of this, it was a nightmare.”
The former senior NFL insider for The Athletic stepped down in April after Page Six first published photos showing her and Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel holding hands while at a resort in Arizona.
After following the news cycle for a month, Russini explained that her and Goldschmidt, a Shake Shack executive, deleted their X accounts and avoided headlines on the matter.
“The lies became so out of control,” Russini said. “This was a runaway train, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Once we realized nothing was going to stop this, it became unhealthy for us to read it because it wasn’t helping us heal. It was piling on and adding to what we were already dealing with.”
The pair, married for six years, share two young sons.
Russini explained that going through this has strengthened their family unit.
“I would not wish that experience on any person ever,” she said. “But through it, I did get an opportunity to not just learn about myself, but my family and our priorities, and maybe some decisions and things I was doing in my career, and putting it before what I really wanted most, which was to be a mom.
“And while it was so hard at first, feeling their love and support helped me believe that, ‘Wait, I know I can go back to doing this. I know that they’re settled. I know that we’re a unit, and no one is going to come between us. Nothing’s going to break us.’”
The New Jersey native explained that the matter impacted distant family members and had a “lasting effect” on them.
“Now that I’ve been in the center of this attention and understanding that this wasn’t just something that shook me, it affected my 94-year-old grandmother, my cousins, family members I haven’t even spoken to in years,” she said. “It just had a really lasting effect, and I don’t necessarily know if I ever really thought about that as much as I should.”
Russini shared that she hopes her situation can inspire other women.
“I really hope that I can be someone other women see: you can pick yourself up, get back in there and not be afraid,” she said. “Because if you just do the work — and I hope to continue working at a high level — that’s all that’s going to matter. And I hope that quiets the noise.”
The former ESPNer explained that she is launching “The Russini Report,” a one-hour show that will stream on BetUS TV’s website and X account beginning Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET.
Russini will also write an accompanying column to the series.
Russini said she will be a featured contributor on the “Nobody’s Safe” podcast with host Jon Weiner, popularly known as “Stugotz.”
“In a time when it was easy to pile on, and I think people were enjoying watching my career fall apart, Jon was really bold and loyal, and he was a friend to me,” Russini said.
In September, The Athletic published the findings of its nearly five-month probe into Russini’s relationship with Vrabel and said the former NFL reporter was “noncompliant” with the New York Times-owned company’s standards.
“One of the hard parts about this was that a lot of the work I was doing and the things that I’ve accomplished got lost,” she said. “It quickly went from just one moment that people felt was true, and erased years of work.”
Russini explained that her work has changed since she resigned.
“The way I’m going to approach stories is going to be very different now,” she said. “I have an understanding and an empathy that I didn’t have before. I would do stories in the past at the best of my ability, and sometimes now I reflect on those, and I don’t know if I always thought about how much this would affect not just the player, but a team, an organization, the players’ families.”
Russini said she received support from NFL team owners, agents, general managers, head coaches and players, including “star quarterbacks.”
She claimed some players were calling and texting her to check on her.
“The absolute best part of this situation has been the loyalty the NFL has shown me,” Russini said. “They checked in with me almost daily while I wasn’t working to make sure that I was staying connected to football, to check on me as a person and to just see how I was doing.”
“I felt like players were texting and calling me to say, ‘Get back to work, it’s time.’ I think it’s pretty poetic that here I was all these years telling the story about these players going through adversity, and then they became sort of the people that I was learning from during this.”
Russini added that she’s not afraid to return to sports media.
“I’m using a lot of that as motivation, and it’s why I’m so energized,” she said. “It’s why I’m not scared to get back in because I know the people that I cover are welcoming me back with open arms.”
