The alleged relationship between New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and NFL reporter Dianna Russini took the sports landscape by storm.
While the scandal led to Russini’s resignation from The Athletic, it also ultimately led to NFL writer Crissy Froyd getting fired from USA Today after she weighed in on the controversy. Now, Froyd is breaking her silence on what she describes as systemic corporate incompetence and massive double standards within major media networks.
Why USA Today Fired Crissy Froyd Over the Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini Scandal
It all started when Russini posted her resignation letter. Froyd called her out and declared on X, “I’m sure you were told to submit this or that you’d get fired instead. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. We know who you really are and what you’ve been up to for years. It does so much detriment to women in sports who have done things the right way.”
Within 48 hours, USA Today terminated Froyd’s independent contractor agreement.
Froyd recently appeared on “The Howard Eskin Show” and discussed her termination. She said that she received a vague email claiming the network “didn’t like being a part of the news cycle,” followed by an official statement from corporate executive Lark-Marie Antón, whom Froyd claimed she had never even heard of.
Froyd completely rejected the corporate narrative surrounding her exit, unleashing a blistering critique of USA Today’s operational structure. For Froyd, the termination highlighted a deeply disorganized organization.
“I think most of all, they’re just stupid,” Froyd said bluntly. “Who forgets to renew a contract for two years? … I’ve heard of this too from within the company, there was someone that was working for a different [NFL] Wire network and tried to get issued a Broncos Wire contract by accident, and then the guy that was above them was like, ‘Oh, thanks for letting us correct that.’
“And then the contracts I’d had before that were misspelled. It’s a stupid company. It’s a dumb company. They don’t know what they’re doing. Well, it’s embarrassing. I think a kindergartener could do it better than they do.”
Beyond the clerical errors and contract mix-ups, Froyd claims she was never presented with, nor signed, any paperwork regarding her social media conduct or specific ethics guidelines.
“I had no way to even know what I was supposed to uphold,” Froyd explained.
She recalled that when she was 19, working on the college sports side, an internal employee admitted USA Today was terrified of proposing social media conduct clauses over fears of being sued and failing legal scrutiny.
“So why all of a sudden you think you can do it now? What’s changed?” she asked.
The Russini-Vrabel scandal started when Page Six published photos of Russini and Vrabel together at an Arizona resort in April. Both denied any inappropriate relationship at the time. Soon after, Russini resigned from The Athletic amid an internal review, and she maintained that there was no affair.
Vrabel remains the head coach of the Patriots, who have stood by him even after he stepped away from the team on Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft to attend counseling alongside his family.
