NFL insider Dianna Russini is officially back to work eight months after her and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel’s photo scandal broke in March.
Russini, who resigned from The Athletic in April, debuted “The Russini Report” Wednesday — her one-hour show streaming on BetUS TV’s website and X account.
After some technical difficulties that delayed the show by about 45 minutes, she again glossed over the scandal that changed her life.
“Over the last few months, I have had a lot of time to think about my life and my priorities and the person that I want to be moving forward, and being home in New Jersey with my husband and our two little boys and being truly present, it gave me so much perspective that I didn’t even know I needed,” Russini said.
The 43-year-old Russini will also write an accompanying column to her show — and she will be a featured contributor on the “Nobody’s Safe” podcast with host Jon Weiner, popularly known as “Stugotz.”
“I’ve also had a lot of long conversations with people all around football. Some were about the game and others were just about life,” Russini said. “To the people that picked up the phone and checked in and offered both encouragement and honest advice, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Those conversations helped me find my way back to the work I love and back to my self right here hosting this show.
Russini’s first column was also released on Wednesday on BetUS’ site and talked around the scandal.
“Somewhere along those walks, I found time to think. About my family. My choices. The things I’d made room for, and the things I’d too often asked to wait,” Russini wrote in one paragraph — the closest she got to acknowledging any wrongdoing on her end.
Page Six broke the story and published photos on April 7 showing Russini and Vrabel holding hands while at a resort in Arizona in March. The outlet published more photos of them together at Tribeca Tavern in the early hours of March 11, 2020.
Russini promoted her return to sports media in an interview with People on Monday, where she spoke publicly about the scandal for the first time.
Russini did not name Vrabel, nor did she address allegations that her and the coach, who is married, had an affair in the People interview.
The former ESPNer opened up on “the nightmare” aftermath of the situation and explained that her husband, Kevin Goldschmidt, a Shake Shack executive, was her biggest supporter.
She also claimed “the lies became so out of control” and it “became unhealthy” for the pair to keep up with the headlines.
Russini and Goldschmidt have been married for six years and share two young sons.
Vrabel and his wife, Jen, married since 1999, have two sons together.
In September, The Athletic published the findings of its nearly five-month probe into Russini’s relationship with Vrabel and said the former NFL reporter was “noncompliant” with the New York Times-owned company’s standards.
