The Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini situation has been the biggest off-field storyline in the NFL for over a month. What started with resort photos in Arizona has expanded into a weeks-long drip of images, documents, and now video footage, with each revelation pushing the story further from something the Patriots head coach can quietly move past.
The latest development, a TMZ report detailing a private boat rental the two shared in June 2021 while Russini was pregnant, has drawn a sharper reaction than anything before it.
Chris Simms Says New Details Change the Entire Dianna Russini-Mike Vrabel Scandal
TMZ Sports reported that Vrabel and Russini rented a private boat in Putnam County, Tennessee, in June 2021, when Vrabel was still the Titans’ head coach. According to the outlet’s source, the two were the only people on board for the two- to three-hour outing.
Both signed the rental company’s waiver, and Russini declined to take any photos with staff, while Vrabel agreed to one picture but allegedly asked that no images be posted publicly. On Thursday, TMZ followed up by publishing a video from the dock showing Russini walking ahead of Vrabel, visibly six to seven months pregnant with her first child.
Former NFL quarterback and NBC Sports analyst Chris Simms addressed the latest revelation on Pro Football Talk, and he looked quite surprised with the details of the boat rental.
“There are affairs that happen in marriages, and stuff like that goes down,” Simms said. “It’s rare where we see, you know, this type of public where it’s someone following the NFL and a head coach and all that as well, but I think at a base level, you know, with a lack of a better way to say it, I think this story is a little bit like for most people, it’s the first time it crossed into like [disgust] like you’re pregnant and you went and saw him and she’s pregnant and you wanted her to come and hang out on a boat.”
Simms acknowledged that affairs happen in life and in professional sports, but he argued that the pregnancy details moved the story into entirely different territory.
“I think that’s the first time, I know some others that are just, the reaction is just like [surprise and sort of disgust], and that’s where it’s a little odd,” he added. “You know, the other one, ‘Okay, yeah, it’s fair, it’s all messed up and whatever else,’ but this to me is like a different line crossed.”
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Russini’s career in NFL media appears to be over, at least for the foreseeable future. She resigned from The Athletic on April 14 and has been completely silent publicly since. Vrabel’s position remains more secure on paper, as the Patriots’ locker room, led by quarterback Drake Maye, has publicly supported him.
However, the noise level hasn’t diminished. If anything, each new report has been louder than the previous one, and the consistent flow of revelations indicates that more information might emerge before the Patriots’ training camp begins in late July.
