Mike Vrabel, Dianna Russini’s affair is now a football scandal with the Tennessee boat rental, Julio Jones trade timeline
One full month into the ongoing scandal of New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and former NFL Insider Dianna Russini’s affair, TMZ added another layer this week, connecting dots to Russini’s reports surrounding the Tennessee Titans’ trade for Julio Jones from the Atlanta Falcons.
Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini’s extra-marital affair is officially a NFL football story because of the next layer released Wednesday, via TMZ, about a private boat rental by the then Tennessee Titans head coach and then ESPN NFL reporter from June 2021 in Putnam County, Tennessee.
TMZ’s report details the 2-3 hour boat rental with documents of the two signatures on the waivers from the rental company.
The report included: “Vrabel and Russini appeared cautious about photos being taken, and while she declined to pose at all with the staff … Vrabel agreed to snap one pic, but asked that no images be publicly posted.”
Russini was pregnant with her first son, Michael, who was born in August a couple months later. The waiver documents show Russini as the “designated driver” of the vessel as Vrabel’s name was listed under the other participants over age 18.
The news of a boat outing between the two, roughly an hour outside of Nashville and further away than other local lakes and marinas, is not what makes this a football story.
Dianna Russini’s relationship with Mike Vrabel and reporting on the Titans’ trade for Julio Jones
Wide receiver Julio Jones was traded to the Titans from the Atlanta Falcons on June 6, 2021 for a 2022 second round draft pick and a 2023 fourth round pick (Atlanta also sent a 2023 sixth round pick to Tennessee).
Russini reported on ESPN May 27, 2021 that the Falcons had a ‘first round pick offer’ for Jones, per a source, and that the Titans were a ‘long shot’.
Media, fans, and others around the internet have begun to connect the dots. If Jones was traded for significantly less compensation than the first round pick that Russini reported, could this have been her helping Vrabel to cool the trade market for Jones for the Titans’ gain?
We already have dots connected from March 2020, where Russini reported the Titans were not interested in signing Tom Brady as a free agent, instead working to extend QB Ryan Tannehill. That report came three days after images of Vrabel and Russini in close quarters late night in a New York bar, via Page Six.
The NFL’s last statement on this alleged affair was NFL draft week when the league said there would be no investigation into Vrabel for a potential violation of the personal conduct policy. At that point it was a personal, moral situation with the New England Patriots head coach, but both a moral and ethical issue for Russini, who had resigned from her job as The Athletic’s lead NFL Insider.
Now, the NFL should have reason to open an investigation into Vrabel and Russini’s relationship for tampering and collusion based on the data revealed over the last month since Page Six first released images of the two alone in a Sedona, Arizona resort ahead of NFL Owner’s Meetings in Phoenix in March.
What is Mike Vrabel’s future as the Patriots head coach?
It seems extremely unlikely that Patriots owner Robert Kraft would fire Vrabel without an investigational findings from the NFL. Everything coming out of the Patriots organization promotes support and backing of the reigning NFL Coach of the Year who took the team to the Super Bowl in his first season back in Foxboro.
Mike Vrabel’s life has changed. He can no longer go in public without the potential of paparazzi hounding him. Nearly every week a new layer of the (at least six year) affair with Russini surfaces.
We discussed his the chances he will coach this season, and likeliness of him stepping away on our Titans morning show Thursday (link takes you to the beginning of the topic).
I covered Vrabel on a nearly daily basis during his first four season with the Titans before my role shifted away from daily coverage. I do believe in Mike Vrabel’s “football character” that any distraction to the team is one that he would want to get rid of, for the sake of the players, staffers on the team.
At what point in time, with what unknown event with this affair would be the one that has Vrabel make the call that his distraction is too much? Will it ever get there? I know TMZ won’t quit. Vrabel is the target in a TMZ vs Page Six internet war. I don’t think either outlet will be the loser.