Dianna Russini may not be out of the game for long.
The former senior NFL insider from The Athletic resigned in April after Page Six released photos of her and Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel holding hands at a resort in Arizona. Since then, she’s been in talks about multiple job opportunities, potentially ranging from a pro football insider to a sports personality, as reported by Front Office Sports.
This comes after The Athletic concluded its five-month investigation into her relationship with Vrabel, noting that she had been “noncompliant” with the values set by the New York Times-owned outlet.
Barstool Sports is reportedly a frontrunner to bring Russini on board, given her friendship with Dan “Big Cat” Katz and Eric “PFT Commenter” Sollenberger, the hosts of Barstool’s popular “Pardon My Take” podcast, where she has appeared numerous times, according to FOS.
Sources mentioned that Russini is definitely planning a return to sports media soon.
Fox Sports Radio host Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, a friend of hers, stated on his show in May that he would hire her and added that “the offer holds forever.”
Page Six first broke the news of her and Vrabel’s cozy moments at the resort back in March, later publishing other photos of the two together.
Russini, who has two sons with her husband, Kevin Goldschmidt, left The Athletic in April, before her contract officially ended on June 30.
“I stand by any and all reporting I’ve ever done in my career,” she remarked to The Athletic following their review’s findings.
Vrabel, who has two sons with his wife Jen, remained tight-lipped about the investigation’s results, stating, “We’ve moved on and are focused on Seattle and getting better this week.”
Interestingly, he was not disciplined by the Patriots or the NFL but did miss part of the 2026 NFL Draft to attend family counseling.
Mike Semel, The Athletic’s editorial director, conducted the review of Russini’s work concerning Vrabel. He examined 903 articles and 77 videos that featured Russini’s byline, as well as 204 episodes of her “Scoop City” podcast and other appearances.
He mentioned that 75 stories focused on Vrabel’s events, comparing them to other outlets’ coverage while interviewing 14 staff members who had worked with her.
Notably, Russini was not involved in her own review.
Semel found that most of her coverage had little to do with Vrabel, describing it as mostly factual and news-oriented. He did acknowledge that there were moments when she spoke positively about him that could appear “awkward or uncomfortable” in hindsight.
The Athletic decided against investigating her personal conduct since she’s no longer part of the organization.
“Russini should have disclosed her relationship with Vrabel to allow for proper editorial assessment of her coverage,” Semel concluded, also noting that she delayed informing her editors for two days after being approached by Page Six about the photos.
At 43, Russini joined The Athletic in August 2023, after spending eight years at ESPN, where she was a prominent NFL insider contributing to shows like “SportsCenter” and “Get Up.”
