Dianna Russini is returning to sports media with a weekly one-hour show focused on the NFL, backed by the offshore sportsbook BetUS, she announced Monday. The move comes seven months after she resigned as The Athletic’s top NFL insider during an internal review of her relationship with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel.
“The Russini Report” will stream on BetUS TV’s website and its X account, and will be accompanied by a weekly analysis column. BetUS has described the program as a “live NFL betting show” that will run through the remainder of the season, featuring game previews, matchup breakdowns and guest interviews.
Resignation followed resort photos
Russini stepped down on April 14 after The Athletic, which is owned by The New York Times, opened a review of her work. The examination began after the New York Post published photos of Russini and Vrabel at an Arizona resort, taken around the time of the NFL owners meetings in March. Some of the images appeared to show the two embracing and holding hands.
Both Russini and Vrabel are married to other people. They said the interaction was platonic. Russini said the photographs did not reflect that they were part of a larger group gathering, and Vrabel called any suggestion of impropriety “laughable.” The NFL did not investigate Vrabel over his involvement.
Additional photos and reporting raised further questions about the nature of the relationship, prompting the outlet’s review. The Athletic announced the findings of its investigation in September: the review found no signs of bias in her coverage but concluded that her relationship with Vrabel was in “clear violation” of the newsroom’s standards.
A career built at ESPN and The Athletic
Russini, 43, joined The Athletic in 2023 after an eight-year stint at ESPN, where she built a reputation as a breaking-news reporter on player movement, coaching changes and front-office maneuvering across the league.
In comments to People magazine on Monday, Russini described the events of this spring as “heartbreaking.” She did not directly address the allegations involving Vrabel.
“The best way to describe what the last six months were like for me is heartbreaking,” Russini said. “At the beginning of this, it was a nightmare.”
She said the new program will carry NFL analysis “along with a lot of my opinions,” something she described as “something I wasn’t really allowed to do before.”
“The way I’m going to approach stories is going to be very different now,” she told People. “I have an understanding and an empathy that I didn’t have before. I would do stories in the past at the best of my ability, and sometimes now I reflect on those, and I don’t know if I always thought about how much this would affect not just the player, but a team, an organization, the players’ families.”
The show’s association with a betting operator places Russini inside a segment of NFL media that has expanded rapidly as sportsbooks sponsor podcasts, studio programs and team-adjacent content. BetUS framed the program as season-long programming tied to weekly game lines and matchups.