Credit: PFT Live; The Rich Eisen Show
All signs are pointing toward Dianna Russini returning to NFL media next week with a new weekly podcast.
The question now is what form her content will take. Will Russini attempt to slide back into her role as an insider? Is her plan to continue to break news? And most importantly, will she address her alleged affair with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel?
As the leader of one of the most important platforms in the NFL, Mike Florio is pushing publicly for these answers. Florio not only hosts PFT Live for NBC Sports and contributes to Football Night In America, but he also runs Pro Football Talk, the news site that aggregates all of the league’s latest news and rumors in one place and is widely read by fans and industry insiders.
In the latest episode of PFT Live, Florio stated that he plans to “ignore” any news from Russini “unless the credibility is somehow restored.”
As Florio sees it, the starting point is that Russini must address what happened with Vrabel. Florio noted that so far, Russini’s only two public comments on the matter were both denials. In the initial article that broke the story open at the New York Post, Russini denied she had any relationship with Vrabel. When she resigned from The Athletic, she accused the media of stretching the truth.
“If there’s going to be actual reporting as part of this, you’ve gotta have some credibility, or nobody’s going to believe what you say,” Florio said. “Is there going to be an effort to be an insider again? Unless and until we get an explanation that restores credibility… as somebody who aggregates the reports of others, amplifies the reports of others, wants my audience to believe the reporting of others, I’ve gotta believe it first.
“And after everything that’s happened, everything we know, I’m not going to be inclined to believe anything. Which means I’m not going to be amplifying anything. I don’t care what the reporting is. Unless and until it’s confirmed by someone who doesn’t have these credibility issues, I’m going to ignore it. Unless the credibility is somehow restored.”
Russini appears to be partnering with BetUS on the weekly show, as well as a written column. She reportedly hired a crisis publicist to help with her return.
In an internal report at The Athletic released earlier this year, the outlet’s standards editor stated that Russini’s relationship was a “violation” of standards. The editor found multiple instances of improper attribution of information related to Vrabel and his teams, as well as a video interview that called into question how Russini got access to the head coach. After the report was released, Russini gave a statement saying she stood by her reporting.
It would be hard to imagine Russini returning to the public eye without addressing the situation in some way, but news writers and commentators like Florio are already making it clear she will have to earn back trust beyond a simple statement.