Dianna Russini , who used to cover NFL for ESPN, announced that she would leave a few weeks ago and would join The Athletic. Russini, now would be one of the highest-paid writers in the history of New York Times thanks to her move to The Athletic. This was revealed by Peter King , a longtime columnist in Football Morning in America Column.
The lack of opportunity to climb up the ladder by getting promotions was one of the reasons Dianna Russini left ESPN and joined the Athletic is what Peter Claimed.
Russini spoke to NBC sports about her move saying : “I did walk away,” “It wasn’t a situation where ESPN didn’t want me. I love ESPN. They’ve given me so much opportunity and the people I’ve worked with were incredible. It was a really difficult decision for me, for my family. But it really came down to recognizing at ESPN I wasn’t going to change roles. There was no elevation there for me based on my conversations with the company. They did not have a vision outside of what I currently do.”
“The Athletic, through conversations I had with all the people in charge, just has an endless amount of roles and ideas for me. They want information. They want a storyteller. They want someone with personality. Once I realized they were pretty much handing me over a blank sheet of paper that basically just said go be who you want to be, I realized that this could change my life. The Athletic showed that they value me more than ESPN, for sure.”
This sounds like a good excuse for Russini to leave ESPN.
In the near future, Russini will be in charge of improving The Athletic’s coverage of the NFL while she settles into her new position. We wonder if she’ll bring changes to her IG handle