Dianna Russini Broke The Athletic’s Rules Over Mike Vrabel Relationship — and ‘Raised Issues of Trust’

How Dianna Russini handled her relationship with Mike Vrabel seemed to be at odds with company policy at The New York Times.

On Thursday, September 3, The Athletic completed its standards review of Russini, 43 — who worked as the former senior insider for the NFL — conducted by Mike Semel, the editorial director for standards and quality at the publication.

The journalist, resigned from her position at the company in April, about a week after Page Six published photos of her and the New England Patriots head coach, 51, looking cozy. Later that month, the outlet shared more photos of the pair, including one of them kissing at a bar in New York City, allegedly from 2020.

In the reasons for the inquiry section of the review, Semel explained: “Russini’s relationship with Vrabel was in clear violation of The Athletic’s standards. Regardless of whether the relationship was romantic, it was a breach and should have been disclosed. Specifically, when it comes to The Athletic’s standards, Russini was noncompliant.”

“We neither completed an investigation nor reached any conclusion about the nature of the full relationship between Vrabel and Russini, but the totality of the public photographs are enough to conclude a violation of company policy,” Semel further noted. “Additionally, when first confronted with the photos by The New York Post, Russini waited two days before telling her editors and managers. She then told a story to explain the photos that did not align with facts, raising issues of trust.”

In the overall findings section, Semel noted that “The vast majority of Russini’s work for The Athletic had nothing to do with Vrabel, the teams he was coaching or the players the team was pursuing.”

In terms of Russini’s work being clouded by bias, Semel wrote, “Most of what Russini wrote about Vrabel or the Patriots was transactional and newsy. In addition, I’ve not found a clear link to conclude that Russini used her platform to help promote Vrabel or help his teams during her time at The Athletic.”

“That said, there are examples of Russini writing glowingly of Vrabel that in hindsight are awkward or even uncomfortable,” Semel added.

Both Vrabel and Russini, who are still married to their respective spouses, insisted to Page Six that nothing inappropriate happened between them.