Photos published by Page Six on Tuesday showed Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and The Athletic’s Dianna Russini hanging out poolside, in a hot tub and on a rooftop deck at the Ambiente luxury hotel in Sedona. Two of the photos showed Vrabel and Russini with intertwined hands and hugging on the deck.
The images quickly drew attention because both are married to other people, and because the photos landed just as Vrabel was back in the news after returning to the Patriots as head coach last year. On Wednesday, Athletic Executive Editor Steven Ginsberg said the pictures were misleading and lacked essential context, saying the interactions were public and happened in front of many people.
Ginsberg said Russini is a premier journalist covering the NFL and that the company is proud to have her. Russini said many reporters in her field interact with sources outside stadiums and work venues, and said the photos do not represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day.
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Page Six reported that Vrabel was in Tempe, Arizona, for a scouting event at Arizona State University on March 27. The outlet also said an unnamed friend of the coach said Vrabel and Russini were staying a couple of hours away and drove up to meet Russini, who was in Sedona on a trip with her friends, while other unnamed witnesses did not see either of them with anyone else.
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Vrabel denied any allegation of impropriety in a statement to Page Six, calling the interaction completely innocent and any suggestion otherwise laughable. He said the matter does not deserve any further response. Vrabel, a former NFL linebacker who played for the Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers before retiring in 2011, and Russini, who left in 2023 for The Athletic after earlier working for NBC New York, now find themselves at the center of a story driven as much by the missing context as by the photos themselves.
