NFL Coach Mike Vrabel & Dianna Russini's Hotel Photos Spark Rumors

After a tough Super Bowl loss against the Seattle Seahawks, the hits just keep coming for the New England Patriots.

The Pats’ head coach, Mike Vrabel, is now embroiled in some drama over an alleged affair. And it’s not just that he’s been accused of stepping out on his wife, but with whom: New York Times NFL reporter Dianna Russini.

It all blew up yesterday when the New York Post published photos of Vrabel and Russini spending time together at a luxury resort in Sedona, Arizona. The photos show the two embracing in a more-than-friends way, like hugging, interlocking fingers, and hanging out on pool floaties side by side. 

The report states that the photos are from March 28, that their day began with a shared breakfast around 10:30 a.m., and that after some quality time in the pool, they watched the sunset together that night. 

Russini and Vrabel both denied the accusations that they were alone and that nosy photographers just didn’t catch photos of their separate friend groups.

“A source close to Russini says she was staying at the hotel during a hiking trip with two female pals,” writes the NY Post, while “One of Vrabel’s friends told Page Six that they and the coach drove up to Sedona for the day with another pal and that they all drove back to their own hotel, some two hours away, after hanging out with Russini and her gang.”

But eyewitnesses say they didn’t see them with anyone else, and when one was asked directly if Vrabel was with his friend group, they said: “No, he was with a girl.” 

The alleged relationship is already a conflict of interest given their jobs, but even messier because both are in relationships.

Russini has been married to Shake Shack executive Kevin Goldschmidt since 2020 and has two kids. Vrabel’s been married to Jen Vrabel since 1999, back during his playing days with the Steelers, before eventually winning three championships with the Patriots, and eventually a foray into coaching beginning in 2011. 

Both of them nixed the narrative with Vrabel telling the New York Post, that “these photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. This doesn’t deserve any further response.” 

Similarly, Russini said, “The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day. Like most journalists in the NFL, reporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.”

This isn’t the first time Russini has fought these types of allegations. Back in 2015 when she reported some insider information about Washington’s starting quarterback, Jessica McCloughan, the wife of then-Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan, tweeted her, “Please tell us how many BJ’S you had to give to get this story. And did they laugh at you before or after?

The comment was later deleted and swept under the rug after McCloughan apologized. 

The Pats have yet to release a statement, but The Athletic‘s executive editor Steven Ginsberg referred to the images as “misleading” and said they lacked “essential context.”

See social media’s reaction to the drama below.