The NFL offseason has hit a lull as we wait for training camps to start in a little over a month. Still, there are plenty of other storylines worth following as the season nears.
One of the biggest narratives that has dominated the offseason is the Dianna Russini-Mike Vrabel scandal. After intimate photos of the pair were published in April, Russini resigned from her NFL-insider position at The Athletic after the outlet opened an investigation into her reporting. The investigation is still ongoing, but NFL insider Mike Florio predicts it will be wrapped up very soon.
Mike Florio Predicts The Athletic Will Release Findings of Dianna Russini Investigation in Early July
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk is expecting the findings of the Russini investigation to be made public on July 2 or July 3.
“My first reaction to the mere existence of this story: I think that’s the appetizer to what The Athletic is going to do,” Florio said in a video. “Because it was two weeks ago that The Athletic reported that they had told its employees a conclusion of the internal investigation of Dianna Russini’s reporting is a few weeks away. That was two weeks ago. So, I think they are getting ready to land the plane.
“Oh, and by the way, look at the calendar. When is the perfect day to announce this? The ultimate opportunity to dump bad news into a spot where no one is going to notice it: Friday, July 3, at 4:00. Fourth of July weekend will have already started! They may do it Thursday, July 2, just so it’s not that obvious, [but] it will have the same result since a lot of people are going to be off on Friday, the 3rd. But that window, July 2 and July 3, that’s what I’m looking at for The Athletic to announce its final outcome of the Dianna Russini investigation…
“I would suspect that a lot of what is in that New York Times article is going to show up in what The Athletic does because The Times owns and operates The Athletic. You can’t separate the two.”
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“The final outcome of the investigation seems to be coming soon. With July 4 only 10 days away, the afternoons of Thursday, July 2, or Friday, July 3, become a perfect slow-day bad-news nook into which the final report can be wedged,” Florio added in his article.
July 3, in particular, makes a ton of sense since it’s a Friday before a holiday, which is perfect for a news dump.
The Athletic hasn’t revealed whether the results of their investigation will be made public, but even if they only share the findings with their employees, the findings are expected to leak (just as updates about the progress of the investigation have leaked).
The New York Times takes its journalistic ethics and credibility very seriously, so the results of this investigation are highly anticipated. Florio believes that The New York Times’ decision to publish this massive deep dive into the Russini-Vrabel scandal may be a sign that the investigation is wrapping up.
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“It’s impossible not to regard the new article as the precursor to the announcement of the results of the review that The Athletic has been conducting since early April,” Florio wrote. “While there are several specific takeaways from the new article published by the Times, the big-picture assessment is that The Athletic is getting very close to issuing the results of its investigation. And the article in the Times is essentially the appetizer.”
While this story has seemingly died down of late, you can expect it to pick up again once The Athletic concludes its investigation and releases the findings.
As for Russini, it remains to be seen what the next chapter of her career will look like. Russini had solidified herself as one of the top NFL insiders prior to the scandal blowing up her career. Now, it seems her days as an NFL insider are over.
She referred to herself as a “former journalist” in text messages with the New York Times reporters, and a friend of Russini’s noted that she views her resignation as “an opportunity to reimagine her career” and spend more time with her children.
