Dianna Russini had been busted.<\/p>\n
It was January, and Ms. Russini \u2014 then the star N.F.L. reporter for The Athletic, a sports publication owned by The New York Times Company \u2014 had been pulled over by a police officer while texting and driving with her two young sons. It was the second time in a month, she would later recall, that the police had stopped her.<\/p>\n
On this occasion, Ms. Russini tried to fend off a ticket by telling the officer that the coach of the Buffalo Bills had been<\/a> fired, and she was trying to break news.<\/p>\n The officer was unmoved, telling her he was a fan of a different team.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when she made him an offer. Maybe she could connect him, right then and there, to his favorite team\u2019s coach.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you want to talk to the coach? You should talk to the coach,\u201d Ms. Russini said she told the officer as she recounted the incident a couple of weeks later on \u201cStugotz and Company,\u201d a radio show and podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI FaceTime the head coach,\u201d she said, without naming him. \u201cHead coach is in his office. He said, \u2018What\u2019s up?\u2019 I go, \u2018I just got pulled over and I just wanted you to meet my friend, Officer Joe.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The coach helped her get out of the ticket by telling the officer, \u201cYou should let her go, she\u2019s a good citizen,\u201d Ms. Russini said.<\/p>\n The podcast host howled with laughter. \u201cI wish I had that kind of access,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n [Update: June 30, 2026: Newly released body-worn video from the police in Ridgewood, N.J., shows Ms. Russini during a January traffic stop that bears similarities to the encounter she described in her \u201cStugotz\u201d appearance. However, the video does not show her making a FaceTime call to a head coach. The Times wrote a separate article<\/a> about the police video, which was first reported by Adam Herbets of The Center Square.]<\/p>\n About two months later, The New York Post published photos of Ms. Russini and the New England Patriots head coach, Mike Vrabel<\/a>, relaxing in a hot tub at an exclusive Arizona resort and hugging and interlacing their fingers on a rooftop that could be reached only through one of the hotel\u2019s private suites. They both were married to other people.<\/p>\n The pictures created a frenzy of gossip \u2014 as well as examinations of Ms. Russini\u2019s interactions with Mr. Vrabel, a major N.F.L. figure whom she had covered extensively. The Post and TMZ published additional images that seemed to suggest that the reporter and the coach had a close personal relationship spanning years.<\/p>\n Suddenly Ms. Russini\u2019s access was the story.<\/p>\n The tabloid drama stunned the Times Company. Ms. Russini was not just any reporter. The Athletic paid her an annual salary of close to $800,000, according to a former manager who had knowledge of her salary negotiation. This would have made her one of the highest-paid journalists at the Times Company. She had been promoted as a face of the sports publication, which the company bought in 2022 for $550 million as part of an effort to expand the Times\u2019s reach to sports fans around the world. At the time the story broke, The Athletic was in discussions with Ms. Russini about renewing her contract, which was set to expire at the end of June.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini\u2019s bosses initially backed her, saying the photos lacked \u201cessential context.\u201d But The Athletic began an investigation into her reporting. Rather than wait for the results of her employer\u2019s review, Ms. Russini resigned. In a statement, she said she stood by her journalism but had \u201cno interest in submitting to a public inquiry that has already caused far more damage than I am willing to accept.\u201d<\/p>\n A rare woman in the hypermasculine world of N.F.L. sources and scoop artists, Ms. Russini had worked her way into a fraternity of \u201cinsiders,\u201d brand-name media figures known for their exceptional access. As a dogged reporter with an entertainer\u2019s verve, she built her own brand and merged it with one of the most famous institutions in journalism, The New York Times Company.<\/p>\n It seemed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Until it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini operated in a sports-media landscape where traditional journalistic lines could be blurry. She might have considered calling a coach to get out of a ticket not only appropriate, but a funny story to tell on a podcast. For The Athletic, under the ownership of The Times, it was out of bounds. Danielle Rhoades Ha, a Times Company spokeswoman, described it as \u201cunacceptable conduct,\u201d adding that Athletic editors had been unaware of it because Ms. Russini neither sought nor received permission to appear on the podcast, as required by company guidelines.<\/p>\n Mr. Vrabel was not the coach whom Ms. Russini called for help getting out of the ticket, according to someone with whom she shared the details of the story.<\/p>\n But regardless of who the coach was, the episode hints at a deeper tension over how a sports journalist like Ms. Russini works. Her approach to reporting raised specific questions, including whether her closeness to a source like Mr. Vrabel compromised her role at The Athletic.<\/p>\n Whatever the nature of Ms. Russini\u2019s relationship with Mr. Vrabel, hanging out with him poolside at a tucked-away hotel was problematic, according to journalists and media experts. \u201cEven someone working in local news knows, if you were seen in a hot tub with a local coach, that wouldn\u2019t be OK,\u201d said Kelly McBride, the chair of the Newmark Center for Ethics at the Poynter Institute and a former ombudswoman at ESPN. \u201cStuff like that gets around fast.\u201d As for the story about the traffic stop, Ms. McBride said asking a coach for help to avoid a ticket would have been an abuse of professional access for personal gain.<\/p>\n As part of its review, The Athletic is looking into \u201cDianna\u2019s involvement\u201d in a January 2025 article, \u201cInside Mike Vrabel\u2019s Year Off<\/a>,\u201d Ms. Ha said. The roughly 4,400-word article was written by another reporter, Zack Rosenblatt, after Ms. Russini helped broker the coach\u2019s cooperation, arranging breakfast for the three of them so Mr. Rosenblatt could make his pitch. (Mr. Rosenblatt did not respond to a message seeking comment. Ms. Ha said The Athletic\u2019s review of that article does not go beyond Ms. Russini\u2019s role.)<\/p>\n To report this article, Times journalists interviewed more than three dozen people in and around the industry \u2014 many of whom had worked with Ms. Russini during her two-decade career. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to risk their own livelihoods, or because they did not want their names connected to a story that has generated such social media intrigue, private pain and professional angst.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini was sent a detailed memo laying out the Times\u2019s reporting. She declined several requests for an interview. Neither she nor Mr. Vrabel commented for this article on whether their relationship had ever been romantic. The Patriots did not make Mr. Vrabel, 50, available for an interview and did not respond to specific questions. The Athletic and the Times Company did not make their executives available, either.<\/p>\n \u2018How Can I Beat Everybody?\u2019<\/p>\n Ms. Russini, 43, was not merely a reporter. She was a personality, bursting with main-character energy. On television and on podcasts, she talked not just about football but about herself. She played up her New Jersey roots, her scrappy ambition and her experiences as a stretched-to-her-limit mother with a demanding job. It worked for her.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve actually kind of leaned into being a person when I deal with players and coaches and G.M.s and whomever I talk to in football as a way to connect,\u201d she said on the Stugotz podcast, contrasting her approach with \u201cpeople who can be a little tight about it.\u201d<\/p>\n She portrayed herself as the opposite. In August, she went on a Washington, D.C., sports radio talk show<\/a> and asked to be introduced not as an insider but as a \u201cstraight-up MILF.\u201d Other times she shared anecdotes that drew her as a busy working mom. She told Dan Patrick, the popular sports talk host, that she had FaceTimed N.F.L. players to try to impress her sons.<\/p>\n She trumpeted her skills as a reporter. On one occasion, she suggested that she had a sixth sense for news. In June 2021, after breaking the story that the Atlanta Falcons had traded the wide receiver Julio Jones to the Tennessee Titans, she went on television and told a story about receiving a sign while gambling at a bachelorette party in Atlantic City.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m at the roulette table on Saturday night around 11 p.m.,\u201d she said on \u201cGet Up,\u201d ESPN\u2019s weekday morning show \u201cand I hit on black 11.\u201d Aware that Mr. Jones wore No. 11 for Atlanta, Ms. Russini recalled telling someone else in their party: \u201cThat\u2019s Julio. Something\u2019s up.\u201d She called her sources and confirmed her hunch. \u201cI\u2019m a witch,\u201d Ms. Russini said.<\/p>\n And she thrived on the competition, describing reporting almost like a sport in itself. \u201cYou have to be absolutely ruthless,\u201d she told an interviewer at a media conference last summer, \u201cconstantly thinking, \u2018How can I beat everybody?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Being a woman in the business could give her an edge over her male counterparts, she told the podcaster Katie Nolan in February, because players might be more willing to open up to her than to a man. But it came with challenges too, like having her intentions misunderstood. \u201cI try not to call anybody after 8 o\u2019clock,\u201d she told Ms. Nolan. \u201cI don\u2019t want their girlfriends or wives being, like, \u2018Why is this woman calling?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Russini\u2019s journey to the highest echelons of media began in Norwood, N.J., about 20 miles outside New York City, where she grew up one of three children of a plumber and a nurse. A distinguished student-athlete, Ms. Russini ended up in Virginia, playing striker for the Division I women\u2019s soccer team at George Mason University. \u201cDianna was athletic, she was willful, she was determined,\u201d said Diane Drake, the team\u2019s coach during Ms. Russini\u2019s senior year \u2014 and she \u201cnever gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n She started her media career in local television news, reporting on the Hudson Valley and Westchester County in New York, as well as New Jersey, Seattle and Connecticut. One of her breaks<\/a> came about a year into a job covering sports at Washington\u2019s NBC affiliate, when she scooped the national press about the Washington Commanders signing the former Philadelphia Eagles star DeSean Jackson as a free agent.<\/p>\n ESPN hired her in 2015, and she became an anchor on SportsCenter, the network\u2019s marquee highlights program. But Ms. Russini\u2019s destiny lay elsewhere in the sports-industrial complex: She moved into covering N.F.L. teams directly and breaking news, sharpening her skills as an aspiring insider.<\/p>\n In sports journalism, \u201cinsider\u201d is a term for a class of reporters who scrounge for scoops big and small across the entirety of the leagues they cover. Typically both highly visible and well-paid, they rely heavily on access to agents, players, coaches and general managers.<\/p>\n The gig can be similar to that of reporters on political or business beats, but \u201cinsider\u201d has in the last decade become a branding label to mark chosen reporters at sports networks and publications. (Two of the best known insiders, past and present, are Adrian Wojnarowski and Adam Schefter.) Fans pore over their articles, podcast appearances and social media posts \u2014 which often include tidbits attributed to \u201cleague sources\u201d or other unnamed tipsters \u2014 to learn about the granular dealings that shape teams and bracket the action on the field.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini had good days \u2014 she helped break news in 2019 of the wide receiver Antonio Brown\u2019s messy departure<\/a> from the Oakland Raiders, for instance \u2014 and bad ones. Later that year, she reported that the Jacksonville Jaguars were firing their head coach, Doug Marrone, but the team issued a statement calling her story \u201c100 percent incorrect.\u201d Mr. Marrone would remain Jacksonville\u2019s coach for another year.<\/p>\n That same season, she began to cover the Titans in earnest. Mr. Vrabel, a former linebacker, was in his second season as Tennessee\u2019s head coach. In January 2020, Ms. Russini landed a sit-down interview with him.<\/p>\n They seemed to have an easy rapport, with the coach mimicking himself running to check in on one of his players, and Ms. Russini laughing. \u201cI don\u2019t just want to be the coach who stands up there and says, \u2018Don\u2019t fumble,\u2019\u201d he told her. \u201cI want to be the coach that helps them, and helps the team take care of the football or fix anything that needs to be fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n Less than two months later, on March 11, the coach and the journalist were meeting again, this time in a dark Manhattan bar. In photographs<\/a> published recently by The New York Post, Ms. Russini and Mr. Vrabel are seen facing each other on bar stools \u2014 his hand is on her arm; her knees nestled between his. In one photo, he leans toward her and their faces appear to be almost touching.<\/p>\n \u2018Nashville, You Were My Second Home\u2019<\/p>\n Soon after that, the coronavirus sent much of the country into lockdown. Live sports went on pause. Fans and insiders alike logged on to their computers for entertainment and companionship.<\/p>\n That April, Ms. Russini and Mr. Vrabel appeared with about a half-dozen others via Zoom, on a game show hosted by Barstool Sports.<\/p>\n \u201cTell me something a man might do to get a woman in the mood,\u201d the host asked.<\/p>\n \u201cKiss her,\u201d Ms. Russini replied. \u201cI feel like this is good advice for you guys, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Vrabel looked up from his keyboard.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m paying very close attention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n About three weeks later, Ms. Russini posted photographs on Instagram showing her boyfriend, Kevin Goldschmidt, proposing on bended knee. They married that September.<\/p>\n And then it was football season, and Ms. Russini hit the road. The Titans were among the teams in her remit, and she covered six of their games in Nashville and a seventh in Indianapolis. In January 2021, she conducted her final on-camera interview with Mr. Vrabel of the season. She posted clips from the interview on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cNashville,\u201d she wrote in a caption on another post, \u201cyou were my second home this season.\u201d<\/p>\n She and Mr. Vrabel stayed in touch. One day, around the start of the next football season, Ms. Russini met ESPN friends for brunch in Hoboken, N.J. One of those friends, Ms. Nolan, later brought up the part of the hangout that she found the most memorable: when Ms. Russini took a FaceTime call from Mr. Vrabel in Ms. Nolan\u2019s apartment lobby and turned the phone in her direction.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like: \u2018Hi, Mike Vrabel! It\u2019s very nice to meet you,\u2019\u201d Ms. Nolan recalled in February when Ms. Russini joined her as a podcast guest.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini explained. \u201cI remember we had to do, like, a pre-interview thing of, like, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s some topics we\u2019re going to do,\u2019\u201d she said. The situation made an impression on her friend.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember you being like, \u2018Oh, my God\u2019,\u201d she told Ms. Nolan. \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018What is your life?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n (Ms. Russini routinely FaceTimed with coaches and players as part of her job, according to a former colleague.)<\/p>\n In September 2021, ESPN announced it had extended Ms. Russini\u2019s contract. The network issued a news release touting her recent accomplishments, with a photo<\/a> of Ms. Russini.<\/p>\n In the photo, Ms. Russini is perched in the front row of the stadium seats near the end zone, microphone in hand, speaking toward a television camera at the left of the frame.<\/p>\n Just behind her, Mr. Vrabel is standing on the field, staring toward the lens.<\/p>\n \u2018How That Would Look to the Public\u2019<\/p>\n In mid-2023, Ms. Russini\u2019s contract with ESPN was set to expire. Though she was working in the style of insiders \u2014 always on her phone, fighting for scoops \u2014 she did not have \u201cinsider\u201d in her formal job title and made significantly less than peers like Mr. Schefter, who was reported to be earning millions a year.<\/p>\n With great trepidation about leaving what had been her dream job at ESPN, she accepted an offer from The Athletic. She would be known as \u201cthe senior N.F.L. insider.\u201d<\/p>\n That same summer the Times Company announced it was closing the sports desk of The Times, a move that the company said was made to offer expanded sports coverage to subscribers. Many of The Athletic\u2019s stories appear on the homepage of the Times\u2019s website and in its print pages. The Athletic\u2019s Ms. Russini effectively became the company\u2019s top N.F.L. reporter.<\/p>\n \u201cTransactions, injuries, trades and signings will be stories I chase, along with finding out the \u2018whys\u2019 and \u2018hows\u2019 along the way,\u201d she wrote in a piece introducing herself to Athletic readers<\/a>.<\/p>\n She was paired with the former N.F.L. quarterback Chase Daniel for a new podcast, which Amazon Music promoted with a Times Square billboard of Ms. Russini and Mr. Daniel. She also became the writer of a weekly column filled with her insider nuggets that was closely followed by fans and people in the industry.<\/p>\n While Ms. Russini\u2019s career was on the rise, Mr. Vrabel\u2019s had a setback. The Titans fired him in early 2024 after his second straight losing season. The coach took a consultant job with the Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n One of Ms. Russini\u2019s close friends told The Times that she never observed anything that would indicate that the relationship between Ms. Russini and Mr. Vrabel was different from the friendships some male insiders have with players, coaches, agents and team executives, and display on social media.<\/p>\n Still, the friend said that Ms. Russini and Mr. Vrabel supported each other in their careers, and that after Mr. Vrabel was fired, Ms. Russini served as an unofficial adviser as he positioned himself for another top job. In 2025, he became head coach of the Patriots.<\/p>\n The Athletic\u2019s editorial guidelines<\/a> include language addressing relationships between its journalists and the people they cover. Under a section titled \u201cTransparency,\u201d the publication says reporters \u201cshould avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest and reveal those sources or affiliations that may put into question our ability to be credible.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sedona photos were \u2014 at a minimum \u2014 a bad look, said Ms. McBride, the journalism ethics expert. This would be true for any reporter, she said, although she noted that gender most likely has played a role in how the photos have been interpreted. \u201cIf you saw a male sports reporter in the hot tub with the coach,\u201d she said, \u201cyou probably would just be like, \u2018Oh, a couple of bros hanging out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. McBride said that she could not fully judge Ms. Russini\u2019s actions without knowing how explicitly she and her editors had talked about her approach to her subjects and her sources.<\/p>\n If a journalist has a close platonic relationship with a source, \u201cyou bring your bosses in to navigate how that would look like to the public,\u201d Ms. McBride said. \u201cIf they were just friends, it would have been good to say she had developed a relationship and maybe be reassigned.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Russini did not alert editors to any conflicts of interest, according to the Times Company spokeswoman.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini and Mr. Vrabel \u201cshould know better,\u201d said Robert Lipsyte, a former longtime Times sportswriter and ESPN ombudsman.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were operating very flagrantly,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cThe blatancy of it is shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018The Truth Is the Truth\u2019<\/p>\n Last spring, the company sent Ms. Russini to a major media and advertising conference in France, where she posed for photos with two of its best-known journalists: Michael Barbaro, founding host of its flagship podcast, \u201cThe Daily,\u201d who is famous enough to have been parodied on \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d; and Andrew Ross Sorkin, the founder of the Times\u2019s DealBook business newsletter and conference, a co-anchor of CNBC\u2019s \u201cSquawk Box\u201d and a co-creator of the Showtime series \u201cBillions.\u201d<\/p>\n As the company put her next to some of The Times\u2019s biggest stars, Ms. Russini projected confidence even as she poked fun at herself.<\/p>\n \u201cI am the American idiot here in Cannes,\u201d she said in an interview<\/a> with Glenn Cole, a sports marketer, alluding to her being confused about ordering coffee and getting an espresso. \u201cSo that is what I am representing here. That\u2019s not something The New York Times would like me to represent. They would like me to be their star sports reporter. I can do both very well.\u201d<\/p>\n In another interview, with Mr. Patrick, the talk show host, in February, Ms. Russini portrayed herself as a tough and independent journalist.<\/p>\n The sports talk host asked<\/a>: \u201cWhen is the last time you got yelled at by a coach or player?\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cMike Vrabel,\u201d she answered quickly before describing a misunderstanding they had a few years ago when he thought she called him fat.<\/p>\n She told Mr. Patrick that she was grateful for the chance to talk about getting yelled at by people she covered. Being an insider, Ms. Russini suggested, was not all about harmonious, mutually beneficial relationships. There could be tension.<\/p>\n \u201cI probably spend more time on the phone arguing with people in the league, because \u2014 I\u2019m sure you guys are aware and you know this well \u2014 everyone is so paranoid about information and they want control over it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I like to dig, and sometimes I like to poke around in places where people don\u2019t want to be poked.\u201d She added: \u201cBut the truth is the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Russini joined The Athletic as its \u201csenior N.F.L. insider\u201d in 2023. Credit…Cindy Ord\/Getty Images For Fanatics<\/p>\n That podcast went up during Super Bowl week, when Mr. Vrabel\u2019s Patriots were squaring off against the Seattle Seahawks. At a party in San Francisco, where the sports world had descended for the big game, Ms. Russini posed for selfies with Meredith Kopit Levien, the Times Company\u2019s chief executive, at an exclusive dinner for N.F.L. team owners.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini captioned an Instagram photo of the two of them: \u201cBest date. Best C.E.O.\u201d<\/p>\n The next month, Ms. Russini represented The Athletic at The State of the Times, an annual daylong presentation by the Times Company\u2019s top executives and journalists about the company\u2019s strategies and recent successes. Appearing with three colleagues to discuss the power of video, she again name-checked a certain coach.<\/p>\n \u201cI did an interview with the Patriots head coach, Mike Vrabel,\u201d she began.<\/p>\n The interview, she explained, was stilted and boring \u2014 so she asked him what she called a \u201cthrowaway\u201d question, inviting Mr. Vrabel to share a pet peeve. The Patriots coach told her<\/a> how much it angered him when he spotted able-bodied interlopers parked in designated handicap parking spots.<\/p>\n \u201cThis person who was so robotic on every single thing we were talking about in regards to the N.F.L.,\u201d Ms. Russini said. \u201cBut when it came to real-life things, he just opened up.\u201d<\/p>\n The video<\/a>, she said, \u201cwent everywhere,\u201d she said, because \u201ceveryone can relate to that.\u201d<\/p>\n She also noted the coach\u2019s vigilance about his pet peeve. \u201cIt\u2019s insane!\u201d Ms. Russini told the audience, describing her thoughts during the interview. \u201cI\u2019m like: \u2018What\u2019s wrong with this person? What is wrong with the Kraft family for hiring this man?\u2019\u201d she said, referring to the owners of the Patriots. \u201cBut, obviously he\u2019s pretty good, right? Went to the Super Bowl this year.\u201d<\/p>\n About two weeks later, she was in Arizona lounging with Mr. Vrabel in the hot tub in Sedona.<\/p>\n The next day, Ms. Russini and Mr. Vrabel both attended the N.F.L.\u2019s annual meeting in Phoenix. On the patio of the Arizona Biltmore, she ferried drinks between the bar and an informal klatch that included Mr. Vrabel and other head coaches. According to two people who were there, she periodically stopped to sit on the arm of the sofa next to where Mr. Vrabel sat.<\/p>\n And then, a week later on Easter Sunday, she and her family were in the car, about to leave the house, when a reporter from The New York Post knocked on the window to ask about Sedona.<\/p>\n \u2018I Stand Behind Every Story\u2019<\/p>\n Ms. Russini once again found herself in a jam. This time, a well-placed phone call would not be enough to make the problem go away.<\/p>\n She told The Post that she had been at the hotel in Sedona on a girls\u2019 trip, but over the next two days did not provide any photos from the trip or receipts, according to someone with knowledge of the reporting process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini and Mr. Vrabel worked together to coordinate their responses to The Post, according to someone who had conversations with each of them.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini eventually called her employer \u2014 but her first call was not to her bosses at The Athletic.<\/p>\n Instead, she reached out directly to Ms. Levien, the chief executive of the Times Company.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to call Steven and David,\u201d Ms. Levien said, according to Ms. Ha, the Times Company spokeswoman, referring to Steven Ginsberg, The Athletic\u2019s executive editor, and David Perpich, publisher of The Athletic and the vice chairman of the Times Company.<\/p>\n The chief executive \u201chad no other involvement after that,\u201d said the spokeswoman, who declined to make Ms. Levien, Mr. Perpich or Mr. Ginsberg available for interviews.<\/p>\n When The Athletic executives learned about The Post\u2019s intention to publish the photos, the deadline for a response was just a few hours away. The executives were unaware that The Post had first contacted her two days earlier, according to Ms. Ha, the Times spokeswoman.<\/p>\n The Athletic executives went into deadline mode, considering how to respond. Mr. Ginsberg was communicating with his colleagues while on vacation. A person involved said it felt difficult to imagine that there could be any truth to what the photographs seemed to be insinuating: that The Athletic\u2019s star N.F.L. reporter was entangled in a personal relationship with one of the most prominent people on her beat.<\/p>\n Steven Ginsberg, executive editor of The Athletic.Credit…The New York Times<\/p>\n Mr. Ginsberg saw at least one of the photos that would soon be published. Still, it was the impulse of The Athletic executives to stand up for their employee. Mr. Ginsberg sent The Post a statement of support for Ms. Russini, which was approved by Mr. Perpich and David Rubin, the Times Company\u2019s chief brand and communications officer. (Ms. Ha said Mr. Rubin was not available for an interview.)<\/p>\n \u201cThese were public interactions in front of many people,\u201d Mr. Ginsberg wrote in his statement to The Post. The photographs, he said, \u201clack essential context,\u201d calling her \u201ca premier journalist\u201d whom The Athletic was proud to have on staff.<\/p>\n The Post published the photographs, reporting that both Ms. Russini and Mr. Vrabel said \u201cthey were there with friends who they say simply weren\u2019t visible in the pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n As commentators in the sports world questioned The Athletic\u2019s judgment, the publication asked Mike Semel, its editorial director for standards and editorial quality, to review Ms. Russini\u2019s work. As more information emerged, the company took note, a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n \u201cMore photos were included in the story than Steven was originally shown or was made aware of,\u201d Ms. Ha said in an email. \u201cThe photos that ultimately ran raised new questions about Dianna\u2019s conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n A week after the photos were published, Ms. Russini quit her job. \u201cI have covered the N.F.L. with professionalism and dedication throughout my career, and I stand behind every story I have ever published,\u201d she wrote in her resignation letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a note to the staff on the day of her resignation, Mr. Ginsberg explained the company\u2019s initial defense of Ms. Russini. \u201cThere were clear concerns, but we received a detailed explanation and it was our instinct to support and defend a colleague while we continued to review the matter,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAs additional information emerged, new questions were raised that became part of our investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Russini\u2019s friend said that she resigned because she saw an opportunity to reimagine her career and spend more time with her children. <\/p>\n Mr. Vrabel kept his job. He initially called the speculation about his relationship with Ms. Russini \u201claughable.\u201d But as the news outlets and commentators on social media continued to feast on the drama, Mr. Vrabel acknowledged having \u201cdifficult conversations<\/a>\u201d with his loved ones and then held a penitent \u2014 yet vague \u2014 news conference<\/a> where he described his first response as \u201can attempt to protect your family.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy previous actions don\u2019t meet the standard that I hold myself to,\u201d he said, without specifying what those actions were. He told reporters that he would skip the final day of the N.F.L. draft, which is one of the most important events of the year for a head coach, to seek counseling.<\/p>\n After that news conference, The Post published more photos, reportedly taken six years ago in a Manhattan bar. Then other images dribbled<\/a> out via TMZ, the online tabloid: a June 2021 TMZ video<\/a> that showed a noticeably pregnant Ms. Russini with Mr. Vrabel on a dock at Center Hill Lake near Nashville, where they went on a boat trip; the two of them huddled<\/a> at a 2022 party in Los Angeles; laughing together<\/a> at a casino table in Mississippi in January 2024. (Ms. Russini\u2019s friend said that members of Mr. Vrabel\u2019s coaching staff were with them at the casino, but were not visible in the photo.)<\/p>\n On April 29, three weeks after the scandal erupted, Mr. Vrabel received a standing ovation at an event for Patriots season ticket holders.<\/p>\n In early May, after The Times began reporting this article, Ms. Russini responded to a reporter\u2019s request for an interview via text message. She cited the \u201cintense scrutiny and personal attacks\u201d she had faced, saying, \u201cThis has had a significant impact on my life, both professionally and personally.\u201d At the end of the message, referring to herself as a \u201cformer journalist,\u201d Ms. Russini asked the reporter not to quote from the text.<\/p>\n The interaction demonstrated a different approach to journalism from the way that it is conducted in traditional newsrooms.<\/p>\n When the reporter told her that this article would include portions of her text message because no agreement had been made for them to engage in an off-the-record correspondence, Ms. Russini objected and then emailed Mr. Perpich, the publisher of The Athletic, as well as two senior editors at The Times to reiterate her wish that her comments not be included.<\/p>\n Ms. Russini has not made any public comment since April, though photographs of her giving her husband a kiss outside their home on Mother\u2019s Day were published<\/a> by The Post.<\/p>\n Her former employer appears to be moving on. This week, the Times Company is once again sending top journalists to the media conference in Cannes, this time without Ms. Russini.<\/p>\n A reporter asked the Times Company spokeswoman if The Athletic was going to hire a new senior N.F.L. insider. She responded, \u201cNot something I can confirm at that level of detail at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n