Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini Scandal (Getty Images)
The New England Patriots are preparing for 2026. Mike Vrabel is back to coaching football. And for most people inside the league, the offseason drama surrounding Vrabel and former Athletic reporter Dianna Russini has faded into the background. But for a number of women who cover the NFL for a living, the fallout from that scandal has not gone anywhere. It has quietly reshaped how they do their jobs, who they feel comfortable talking to, and how much extra caution they now need to exercise just to do basic reporting work.
Because he did not want people drawing conclusions about it after everything that happened with Vrabel and Russini, one assistant coach told a female reporter he would rather not meet her for coffee. Because she worries someone might photograph the meeting and it might be misread, one said she has started telling her editor when she meets with team personnel, simply.
What has changed, according to multiple women reporters who spoke to ESPN, is that those ordinary interactions now carry a different weight. Another reporter said NFL personnel reached out to her this spring with a direct warning: “Women reporters will have a harder time at the scouting combine. Four reporters told ESPN they feel they now have to be more deliberate about routine interactions. Both said the images were taken out of context.
That is not a small thing. That is a gatekeeper closing a door that was already narrow to begin with. The combine is one of the most important networking events of the football calendar. Losing ground there is a real professional cost. These are the calculations that male reporters are not making. Photos of Vrabel and Russini together at a resort in Sedona, Arizona, surfaced in April. Russini described a group outing. Vrabel called the suggestion of anything improper laughable. Within two weeks, Russini had resigned from The Athletic. Vrabel briefly left the Patriots during the NFL Draft to seek counseling and then came back. For the women who cover his team and the rest of the league, it is still unfolding in quieter, less visible ways. Every coffee meeting that does not happen, every source who pulls back, every extra email to an editor before a normal conversation with a coach, those are the real costs. They are not dramatic. They do not make headlines. But they compound.