The Athletic found its former NFL reporter Dianna Russini had a close, \u201cawkward\u201d and \u201cuncomfortable\u201d relationship with coach Mike Vrabel that she should\u2019ve disclosed, the New York Times-owned digital sports publication said Thursday.<\/p>\n
However, Mike Semel, The Athletic\u2019s editorial director for standards and quality, who led the probe into Russini\u2019s work, said he did not uncover \u201cclear\u201d evidence that the publication\u2019s one-time NFL insider wrongly propped up Vrabel\u2019s professional interests. <\/p>\n
Russini resigned from The Athletic in April, less than a week after photos of she and the married Vrabel, 51, at an Arizona hotel drew scrutiny.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve not found a clear link to conclude that Russini used her platform to help promote Vrabel or help his teams during her time at The Athletic,\u201d Semel wrote in a piece published Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat said, there are examples of Russini writing glowingly of Vrabel that in hindsight are awkward or even uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n Semel said he \u201creviewed 903 stories and 77 videos published on The Athletic site and app that carried Russini\u2019s byline, co-byline, a contributor line or a mention of her reporting\u201d in addition to \u201c204 episodes of the Scoop City podcast, produced by The Athletic and co-hosted by Russini.\u201d <\/p>\n Semel also looked over \u201c25 off-platform appearances or interviews for which she was in some way representing The Athletic and interviewed 14 Athletic staffers.<\/p>\n Semel\u2019s piece did not mention any interviews with Russini herself for this probe.<\/p>\n Russini, 43, could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cRussini\u2019s relationship with Vrabel was in clear violation of The Athletic\u2019s standards,\u201d according to Semel. \u201cRegardless of whether the relationship was romantic, it was a breach and should have been disclosed.\u201d <\/p>\n In addition to several gushing comments Russini has made about Vrabel on various platforms, Semel zeroed in on a 2023 \u201cWhat I\u2019m Hearing\u201d column, in which she wrote that Vrabel, then head coach of the Tennessee Titans, wouldn\u2019t be fired.<\/p>\n \u201cAngry Tennessee Titans fans can stop hoping owner Amy Adams Strunk fires Vrabel. It\u2019s not happening. Based on multiple conversations with high-ranking Titans officials, the franchise strongly and collectively believes it has the right coach for long-term success,\u201d according to Russini.<\/p>\n The Titans fired Vrabel two months later. <\/p>\n Vrabel returned to coaching in 2025 and led New England to one of the greatest turnarounds in recent NFL history. The 2025 coach of the year, Vrabel took a squad, which had gone 4-13 in consecutive campaigns, to a 14-3 mark and AFC title this past season.<\/p>\n This post appeared first on https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Athletic found its former NFL reporter Dianna Russini had a close, \u201cawkward\u201d and \u201cuncomfortable\u201d relationship with coach Mike Vrabel that she should\u2019ve disclosed, the New York Times-owned digital sports publication said Thursday. However, Mike Semel, The Athletic\u2019s editorial director for standards and quality, who led the probe into Russini\u2019s work, said he did not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}