The Athletic has completed its months-long investigation into former NFL insider Dianna Russini and her relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, concluding that Russini violated the publication’s newsroom standards but finding no evidence that her reporting was biased in Vrabel’s favor.
According to ESPN, The Athletic spent approximately five months reviewing more than 1,100 stories, videos and podcast episodes involving Russini’s NFL coverage. The review found no indication that Russini improperly shaped her reporting to benefit Vrabel or the teams he coached. Russini was not interviewed as part of the investigation.
The findings bring some closure to one of the biggest sports media controversies of the NFL offseason.
Russini resigned from The Athletic in April after photos surfaced showing her and Vrabel together at a luxury resort in Sedona, Arizona, shortly before the NFL’s annual league meetings in Phoenix.
The New York Post published photos that appeared to show Russini and Vrabel embracing, holding hands and spending time together around the resort. Both initially pushed back against suggestions that the photos represented an inappropriate relationship.
Russini said the pictures did not provide the full context because they did not show the larger group of people who had been together during the day. Vrabel initially called suggestions of impropriety “laughable.”
The Athletic initially publicly supported Russini.
Executive editor Steven Ginsberg said at the time that the photos were “misleading” and lacked context. However, the publication opened an investigation after additional questions emerged concerning Russini’s relationship with Vrabel and whether it presented a conflict of interest in her NFL reporting.
Russini resigned on April 14 before the investigation was completed.
“I have covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication throughout my career, and I stand behind every story I have ever published,” Russini said in her resignation letter.
Russini also criticized what she described as a growing media frenzy surrounding the situation and said she did not want the controversy to define her career.
Despite her departure, The Athletic announced it would continue examining her previous work under the direction of its editorial standards department.
The completed review appears to draw a distinction between Russini’s professional conduct involving her relationship with Vrabel and the actual journalism she produced.
While The Athletic determined that newsroom standards were violated, investigators did not find evidence that Russini’s relationship with Vrabel resulted in favorable coverage of him or his teams. That finding is particularly significant because questions about whether Vrabel influenced Russini’s reporting became a central part of the controversy.
The New York Times’ ethics guidelines, which apply to The Athletic, emphasize that journalists must avoid conflicts of interest as well as situations that create the appearance of partiality. The guidelines also stress the importance of maintaining professional distance from sources.
Vrabel, meanwhile, remained head coach of the Patriots throughout the controversy.
After initially dismissing speculation surrounding the photos, Vrabel later acknowledged that his actions had caused a distraction for his family and the organization. He said his actions did not meet the standards he set for himself and briefly stepped away from the Patriots during the NFL draft to begin counseling.
The NFL previously said it would not investigate Vrabel under the league’s personal conduct policy.
Russini has largely remained out of the NFL media spotlight since leaving The Athletic.
The conclusion of The Athletic’s investigation clears up one of the biggest outstanding questions from the controversy: The publication found Russini crossed its professional standards, but after reviewing more than 1,100 pieces of her work, it did not find evidence that her reporting itself was slanted in favor of Vrabel.
Flip the pages for photos of Vrabel and Russini’s affair.
