{"id":729318,"date":"2026-06-27T14:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/729318\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T14:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:05:08","slug":"which-coach-helped-dianna-russini-get-out-of-a-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/729318\/","title":{"rendered":"Which coach helped Dianna Russini get out of a ticket?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent New York Times article<\/a> regarding former New York Times reporter Dianna Russini answered some lingering questions. It also gave rise to an obvious question that possibly will linger at least until the opening of training camps, if not longer.<\/p>\n

The item opens with reference to a story Russini told on the Stugotz & Company radio show on Thursday, February 5<\/a> from the media center at the Super Bowl. She\u2019d been pulled over (presumably in New Jersey, where she lives) for texting while driving. She told the officer that the Bills had just fired coach Sean McDermott and that she was trying to break the story.<\/p>\n

The officer said he\u2019s not a fan of the Bills, but of another team. She assumed he was a Jets fan. He said it\u2019s not the Jets. She offered to connect the officer with his favorite team\u2019s coach.<\/p>\n

And so she FaceTimed the coach, who took the call, spoke to the officer, and persuaded him to not issue her a ticket.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho does that?\u201d she said after telling the story. \u201cI was desperate. I don\u2019t want to get a ticket. My husband was gonna kill me. Texting and driving \u2014 I shouldn\u2019t be doing that. I know that . . . What a nasty play. But it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times article doesn\u2019t identify the coach. The Times article does say the coach wasn\u2019t Patriots coach Mike Vrabel. (And, obviously, it wasn\u2019t McDermott or Jets coach Aaron Glenn.)<\/p>\n

So who was it? McDermott was fired on the morning of Monday, January 19, with word of the termination beginning to circulate just after 9:00 a.m. ET. At the time, the NFL had eight other head-coaching vacancies: Dolphins, Browns, Steelers, Ravens, Titans, Raiders, Falcons, and Cardinals. (The Giants had just hired John Harbaugh.)<\/p>\n

That leaves 21 possibilities. The coaches employed at the time were: Bengals coach Zac Taylor, Colts coach Shane Steichen, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans, Jaguars coach Liam Coen, Broncos coach Sean Payton, Chiefs coach Andy Reid, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer, Commanders coach Dan Quinn, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, John Harbaugh, Vikings coach Kevin O\u2019Connell, Lions coach Dan Campbell, Packers coach Matt LaFleur, Bears coach Ben Johnson, Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, Saints coach Kellen Moore, Panthers coach Dave Canales, Rams coach Sean McVay, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, and Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald.<\/p>\n

Given the time of day, it was just after 6:00 a.m. in California and Washington. Which would tend to make it less likely that McVay, Macdonald, Harbaugh, or Shanahan were in the office that early. (Then again, the Rams and Seahawks were scheduled to play the NFC Championship six days later. Then again, the Rams had just flown home from playing the Bears in Chicago the night before.)<\/p>\n

Again, who was it? I\u2019ve gotten that specific question multiple times since the Times article was posted three days ago.<\/p>\n

Tony Farmer, who has embedded his teeth into the broader Vrabel-Russini story and won\u2019t let go, suggested that the reporters covering the various teams should ask the question<\/a> the next time the coach is available to reporters, at the outset of training camp.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another angle to the story, which wasn\u2019t mentioned by the Times and which I\u2019m reluctant to bring up for fear of being dubbed a \u201cnarc.\u201d New Jersey has a very broad bribery law<\/a>. It also has a very strict law regarding texting and driving<\/a>. For the first offense, it\u2019s a $200 fine. The second offense results in a $400 fine. The third offense carries a $600 fine \u2014 and a 90-day suspension of driving privileges.<\/p>\n

Assuming this was a first offense (she said she\u2019d been pulled over not long before the incident in question but the cop let her go because one of her kids was screaming in the back seat), $200 was riding on whether she could persuade the officer to not ticket her for something she apparently admitted to doing. Given her admitted habit of texting while driving, she would have been closer to losing her license for 90 days.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to use the power of persuasion to get a police officer to not issue a ticket. Giving him the chance to talk on the phone to the head coach of his favorite football team is another. That has inherent value. <\/p>\n

How much? Well, how much would you pay to have the chance to FaceTime with the head coach of your favorite team?<\/p>\n

The New Jersey bribery law doesn\u2019t limit its application to situations where money changes hands. It uses the term \u201cbenefit as consideration.\u201d A police officer getting a chance to talk to the head coach of his favorite NFL team would qualify as a \u201cbenefit of consideration\u201d in exchange for the \u201cexercise of discretion of a public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Times spokesperson called the FaceTime-for-no-ticket situation \u201cunacceptable conduct.\u201d And while the chances of Russini or the officer facing bribery charges are extremely slim, those who are following the story will now be even more curious as to which coach took the call and talked the officer out of exercising his discretion to give her a ticket.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of 21. Given the comments Russini made, it\u2019s a fair question to pose to each of those 21 teams and coaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recent New York Times article regarding former New York Times reporter Dianna Russini answered some lingering questions.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-729318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}