The halfway point of the 2026 NFL season arrives this weekend. Next week, Dianna Russini apparently will return to sports media.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Russini has begun getting the word out to people in the league that she’ll be returning to work “next week.”
It’s unclear where she’ll be working, or what she’ll be doing.
She resigned from The Athletic in April, one week after photos were published by the New York Post of Russini and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel at a resort in Arizona. In both her comments to the Post and her resignation letter to The Athletic, she denied that there was any type of impropriety.
The Athletic conducted a review of her work. Its findings were released in early September.
“Russini’s relationship with Vrabel was in clear violation of The Athletic’s standards,” wrote Mike Semel of The Athletic, who conducted the investigation. “Regardless of whether the relationship was romantic, it was a breach and should have been disclosed.”
Beyond the relationship was the manner in which she handled the emergence of the controversy.
“[W]hen first confronted with the photos by The New York Post,” Semel wrote, “Russini waited two days before telling her editors and managers. She then told a story to explain the photos that did not align with facts, raising issues of trust.”
Along the way, a strange story emerged regarding Russini being pulled over for texting while driving — made stranger by her decision to tell the story publicly and embellish the notion that she FaceTimed a head coach for help in getting out of the ticket.
So if she’ll be reporting again, she’ll need to restore her own credibility. Especially given the unique set of facts that resulted in her departure from The Athletic.
