Mother’s Day usually brings warm wishes for every mom across the NFL community, whether she is a reporter or an NFL WAG. But for Dianna Russini, the special day this year brought more hate than flowers.
The veteran NFL reporter has been at the center of a messy affair with married New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel. The chaos surrounding their scandal erupted in April when steamy photos surfaced of Russini and Vrabel holding hands, hugging, and sharing a hot tub at a luxury Arizona resort.
That led to her quick resignation from The Athletic amid an internal investigation. Additional images later showed them kissing at a New York bar years earlier, alongside separate reports ofprivate boat trips taken while she was pregnant.
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Feb 7, 2022; Westlake Village, CA, USA; ESPN reporter Dianna Russini at Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl LVI Opening Night at Oaks Christian High School. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Russini has stayed mostly radio silent since stepping away. Vrabel called the situation a personal matter, missed part of the draft for family counseling and kept coaching the Patriots.
Yet right in that vacuum, an old Mother’s Day selfie video of her resurfaced and blew up only because it looked thirsty from every angle. MLFootballpostedthe resurfaced clip on Saturday.
TRENDING: This old video from ex-#NFL insider Dianna Russini posting an apparent THIRST TRAP on her account on Mother’s Day has resurfaced and gone viral on social media.
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This is truly something else — this was before everything went public. pic.twitter.com/ox9h7gJOHz
— MLFootball (@MLFootball) May 16, 2026
In it, she lounges outdoors in a t-shirt, arm behind her head, smiling at the camera in what many called a solo thirst trap setup.
Fans react to Dianna Russini’s thirsty trap on Mother’s Day
The post quickly crossed 2 million views as wild replies poured in the comments.
One fanasked, “Is Mike Vrabel underneath her?”
Anotheradded, “Who is this video for?”
A third viewerjoked, “Looks like she wants something.”
The fourth onenoted, “Is the thirst trap in the room with us?”
A fifth fanremarked, “This is who Vrabel ruined his entire reputation over?”
Many people viewed the resurfaced solo clip of her through the lens of the scandal. The timing, right after the public saw photos of Russini with her husband, fueled more jokes and questions online.
Russini’s relationship with her husband appeared to take a new public turn after paparazzicaught her kissing husband Kevin Goldschmidt outside their New Jersey home on Mother’s Day 2026. It was their first public sighting together since the story involving Vrabel broke.
While kissing Goldschmidt, she was holding one of their young sons on her hip. This Mother’s Day kiss suggested an attempt to move forward together as a family after weeks of intense media scrutiny. Whether their reconciliation holds remains to be seen as the controversy continues to linger across NFL circles.