The Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini scandal has dominated NFL headlines for two months. It has produced three waves of leaked photographs, and Russini resigned from her job at the Athletic.
Crissy Froyd, the NFL writer who was let go by USA Today for speaking out about the scandal, recently appeared on “The Howard Eskin Show” and shared some new allegations knows about Vrabel and Russini.
Crissy Froyd Claims Dianna Russini, Mike Vrabel Have Been Together a Decade
The scandal first broke on April 7 when Page Six published photos showing Vrabel and Russini holding hands, hugging, and spending time together at the adults-only Ambiente resort in Sedona, Arizona.
Russini resigned from The Athletic on April 14 amid the outlet’s internal investigation. Later, Page Six published additional photos that reportedly showed Vrabel and Russini kissing at a New York City bar in March 2020. TMZ followed with a video of them taking a private boat trip in Tennessee in 2021 when Russini was pregnant with her first child.
During Froyd’s appearance on the show, Eskin asked her, “How far back do you think people knew that this was going on between Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel?”
“At least 10 years,” Froyd replied. “At least 10 years. I would assume… for what I know between her and him and certainly for what I know about her, at least 10 years.”
“The biggest thing to me was the way that everyone knew and no one did anything about it, and it was obvious. To me, the worst part of it was… I would almost feel bad for her if she, like, fell in love for six months and made these horrible mistakes and she owned up to it ‘cause everybody makes mistakes in their lifetime… But you don’t make the same mistake for six years, 10 years, anything of that longevity whatsoever,” she added.
It’s worth noting that Froyd didn’t provide any evidence to back up her allegation about Vrabel and Russini. It is unclear if this accusation about the relationship timeline is accurate.
Froyd also took aim at Russini’s since-deleted X account, alleging, “The way that she had deleted her Twitter account and it appeared, at least the way I took it and the way that most people took it, that she had been like covertly bragging on that. I mean, it’s disgusting.”
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Froyd has maintained throughout the fallout that she lost her job at USA Today for saying what others in the industry knew privately.
In a recent column for the Daily Mail, she wrote, “I’ve also been told by at least half a dozen female reporters that they have had sex with NFL staff and, in one case, a prominent NFL head coach, while they were covering the team. It takes a high degree of trust to make such a confession, so I assume that many other similar stories go untold.”
The public conversation around Vrabel and Russini has largely quieted as the offseason moved toward OTAs. However, more details may surface as the teams get closer to training camp, where the Patriots head coach will face reporters regularly, and the questions will be harder to avoid.
