{"id":7998116,"date":"2026-04-10T15:39:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T22:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7998116"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T03:00:52","slug":"the-new-york-times-athletic-investigating-reporter-patriots-coach-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/media-platforms\/journalism\/the-new-york-times-athletic-investigating-reporter-patriots-coach-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"The Athletic Investigating Reporter Dianna Russini’s Relations With NFL Coach After Private Photos Surface"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The New York Times\u2019 sports vertical, the Athletic, is investigating senior NFL insider Dianna Russini after photos emerged this week of her hugging and holding hands with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, TheWrap has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources familiar with the matter at the Athletic said the outlet immediately began an investigation into Russini after the New York Post\u2019s Page Six reached out for comment regarding photos <\/a>of the two spending time together at a luxury hotel in Sedona, Arizona. The two, who are both married to other people, reportedly ate breakfast together at the Ambiente, spent time at the hotel\u2019s pool and hot tub and were pictured on the roof of a private bungalow, according to Page Six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources for Russini and Vrabel, who were both in Arizona for a meeting of the NFL Competition Committee, told Page Six the two were with other people during the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Times declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The investigation, which is ongoing and was first reported by Front Office Sports<\/a>, represents an abrupt change from the outlet\u2019s public defense of Russini over the photos. In Page Six\u2019s Tuesday story, executive editor Steven Ginsberg initially said the images were \u201cmisleading and lack essential context.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese were public interactions in front of many people,\u201d he told Page Six. \u201cDianna is a premier journalist covering the NFL and we\u2019re proud to have her at the Athletic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While his statement stemmed from an initial review of the images, the apparent conduct did raise questions for Ginsberg and Athletic leadership, according to sources familiar with the matter. The Page Six report and information gleaned from the ongoing investigation have since spurred additional concerns for the Athletic, according to the sources, and Russini will not be reporting for the outlet as it probes the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russini also said the photos \u201cdon\u2019t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day\u201d and that \u201creporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.\u201d Photos have not emerged to support Russini’s claim. She did not respond to an immediate request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vrabel told Page Six the photos showed \u201ca completely innocent interaction, and any suggestion otherwise is laughable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russini joined the Times-owned Athletic in 2023 after eight years at ESPN, where she worked as an NFL analyst and a \u201cSportsCenter\u201d anchor. She covered Vrabel\u2019s tenure as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russini\u2019s most recent story for the Athletic was published Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\tAs Sports News Desks Shrink, the Beat Is Forced to Evolve<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Page Six published photos showing the NFL insider holding hands and hugging New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10244,"featured_media":7998157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":513131,"post_id":7831473}}]},"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"nb_breaking_email_type":"b8b5eaae-7af7-4a7d-8ff2-8ed7e2f9029d","nb_breaking_template":"single-story.html","nb_breaking_from_name":"TheWrap","nb_breaking_subject":"","nb_breaking_preview":"","nb_breaking_list":[],"nb_breaking_header_img":7555420,"nb_breaking_should_send":false,"nb_breaking_content":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Discover why entertainment executives and professionals rely on the WrapPRO platform daily for exclusive coverage, analysis, deeper reporting, and access to VIP events & screenings throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","nb_newsletter_sent_breaking_post_id":[7998162],"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-04-10T22:39:49Z","apple_news_api_id":"d1e9648a-8357-473f-8ce3-2fe5b325cace","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-04-11T03:00:57Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A0elkioNXRz-M4y_lsyXKzg","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"hide_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_full_width_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_featured_video":false,"the_wrap_post_featured_video":"","the_wrap_post_disable_read_more":false,"wp_curate_deduplication":false,"wp_curate_unique_pinned_posts":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[514391,275113],"tags":[429422,452409,855],"tw_data_partners":[],"columns":[],"byline":[513131],"class_list":["post-7998116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journalism","category-sports","tag-dianna-russini","tag-the-athletic","tag-the_new_york_times"],"newsletter_builder_byline":"Corbin Bolies","is_pro_article":false,"apple_news_notices":[],"eyebrow":{"link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/media-platforms\/journalism\/","text":"Journalism"},"tw_schema_org_review":{"name":"","type":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7998116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7998116"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7998116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7998268,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7998116\/revisions\/7998268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7998157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7998116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7998116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7998116"},{"taxonomy":"tw_data_partners","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tw_data_partners?post=7998116"},{"taxonomy":"tw_column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columns?post=7998116"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7998116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}