Jeff Pearlman has been following the Dianna Russini story closely since it broke. The veteran sportswriter believes Russini deserved the consequences she is facing now, but he argues that such behavior is far from uncommon in the industry.
Pearlman then pointed fingers at some of the most prominent names in the business.
Jeff Pearlman Calls Out Sports Media Hypocrisy Over Dianna Russini
“I think Dianna Russini shouldn’t work anymore in this business, I do. I think it’s bulls**t,” Pearlman said in a recent TikTok video.
But he didn’t stop there. He pivoted quickly to a question he thinks the sports media world has been dodging for years: why does this same scrutiny never land on men?
He brought up Jay Glazer to make his point. The Fox Sports insider has hosted an annual pool party for NFL head coaches at the league’s owners meetings for 18 years.
Nobody has ever really questioned it, but Pearlman thinks that’s a problem. “You know why Jay Glazer isn’t having sex with the athletes? Because he’s a heterosexual male and he covers men,” he said. “Otherwise, he’s doing anything but.”
The timing makes this especially pointed. As recently reported, Russini and the New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel were seen at those same owners meetings in March, hosting a competing party directly across the pool from Glazer’s coaches gathering.
Pearlman’s argument isn’t that Russini and Glazer did the same thing. It’s that the industry applied enormous scrutiny to her the moment those photos went public — and has never once applied that same lens to the men who’ve built careers the exact same way.
“Hey, come to my BBQ. Hey, let me work you out. Hey, you’re my buddy. Hey, let’s hang out. Hey, tell me stuff, it’s OK,” he said, describing Glazer’s approach. “That’s access journalism 101. That’s exchanging for exchanging.”
He extended the critique further. Shams Charania, Adrian Wojnarowski, Adam Schefter, Ian Rapoport — nobody spent weeks auditing their old reporting for favorable coverage of sources they’d built close friendships with. Nobody asked what they gave up in exchange for the access that made their careers.
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“There’s no excusing Dianna Russini. It’s a bulls**t move. She deserves to lose her job,” Pearlman said. But then came the part that’s been rattling around sports media circles since he posted it. “It’s just weird how we’re OK because it’s men being pals with men.”
The access game has always worked this way, as information flows in exchange for intimacy. Sources open up because they feel protected, and that trade-off has been baked into sports journalism forever.
Nobody much cared — until Page Six published photos of Russini on a rooftop resort in Arizona with a married NFL head coach.
“I just want to say: Dianna Russini deserved it, but why are we OK with trading of favors in sports just because it’s two men?” Pearlman added. “It’s just weird. I just don’t think it’s right.”
Pearlman’s point is blunt, as the relationship between a reporter and a source is transactional by nature. Whether it’s backyard barbecues, workout sessions, or something more, the underlying dynamic is the same.
