New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel once angrily called Dianna Russini after thinking she implied he was too fat to coach, according to resurfaced video.
Russini, 43, who worked for The Athletic at the time, shared the story in March 2024, during an appearance on the “Pardon My Take” podcast, explaining that some of her recent comments about Vrabelt were taken out of context.
“[Vrabel] called me the day after an aggregator took something I said that basically said ‘Mike Vrabel’s too fat to work,’” Russini said.
Russini then clarified what she had actually reported about Vrabel.
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“What I shared on the football podcast on The Athletic was that I had dinner with a GM at the Senior Bowl and we had conversations about how bizarre this last coaching cycle was and how crazy it was that [Bill] Belichick and Vrabel didn’t have gigs,” she explained on the podcast.
That’s when, according to Russini, the GM explained why Vrabel, now 50, didn’t immediately catch on elsewhere after being fired as head coach of the Tennessee Titans.
“And I said, ‘Why do you think that Mike didn’t get a job?’” she continued. “He said, ‘I think they needed a change there in Tennessee, but in terms of the next opportunity, I think there’s a lot of people who are very intimidated by him. He walks into a room and he’s confident. He’s physically a big human being and it’s a bit startling at first.’”
Russini said that her story was misconstrued and some took it to mean Vrabel was fat, not physically imposing.
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“The aggregators took that and changed all of this, the way I said that,” she said. “That wasn’t great to hear from a not-too-happy coach. He didn’t call me after the piece we did on why he got fired but the piece we did calling him a little fat, he wasn’t too happy.”
The resurfaced clip comes a day after even more photos emerged showing her and Vrabel appearing together over the past six years. That includes a night at a New York City bar in 2020 where they were seen kissing and holding hands, and a night in a Mississippi casino in 2024.
Russini resigned from The Athletic on April 14 amid an internal investigation into her relationship with Vrabel, spurred by the first batch of photos, published by Page Six a week before. She and Vrabel both said the photos were innocent at first, though Vrabel said prior to the NFL Draft that he initially downplayed his relationship with Russini with his family in mind.
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Vrabel has been married to his wife, Jen, since 1999. Russini married her husband, Kevin Goldschmidt, in September 2020.
“That’s a private and personal matter,” Vrabel said during a Thursday, April 23 press conference. “I think that was an attempt to protect your family and I would never be dismissive. I think my family and this football team are the most important thing…I’m excited about the challenge with both of those things.”
Vrabel also confirmed on Thursday that he will miss day three of the NFL Draft, scheduled for Saturday, April 25, to attend counseling as a result of the scandal. The Patriots released a statement earlier in the day expressing their support for the head coach’s decision.
