It’s never a dull offseason in the NFL, but the summer of 2026 was a particularly interesting one, most fans would agree. Especially when The Athletic’s former NFL insider Dianna Russini’s alleged relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was put under the microscope after Page Six released photos of the pair at a luxury resort in Sedona, Arizona.
Since those pictures were first published in April, questions have been raised about both Russini and Vrabel. A few of those questions were answered when The Athletic released a report on its findings after digging into Russini’s alleged relationship with Vrabel.
However, former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho also had a few things to say after The Athletic made its findings public, choosing to drag ESPN’s Adam Schefter into the conversation.
Emmanuel Acho Takes Aim at Adam Schefter in Aftermath of Report on Dianna Russini Scandal
The Athletic announced that Russini was “noncompliant” with the publication’s ethical standards, noting that while the investigation did close the door on the five-month-long probe, it did not determine “the full extent of the Russini-Vrabel relationship.”
The Athletic also wrote that it found precious little evidence that the alleged relationship in question impacted Russini’s reporting on Vrabel over the course of his tenure in Tennessee and New England.
Russini resigned from The Athletic a week after those pictures were published, but chose to stand by her reporting.
After running through The Athletic’s findings, however, Acho had a few questions of his own and directed some of them at ESPN insider Adam Schefter during a segment on the “Speakeasy” podcast.
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“I wish Dianna Russini would have just gotten ahead of this whole situation. And as a result, we never would have been talking about this,” Acho said. “But I don’t think that Dianna Russini’s reporting was ever invalid. I just think her method by which she acquired the reporting may have been a little more mischievous. Beyond any of that, she just got caught.”
Acho then chose to draw a parallel with Schefter, claiming the ESPN insider may not have the same relationship with his sources as Russini is alleged to have had, but there could be an exchange regardless.
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“There is an exchange of some sort. Maybe there’s an ‘Hey, bro, I’ll take you out to dinner.’ Maybe there’s just an ‘I’m going to shout you out on social media,'” Acho added.
“Adam Schefter, last I checked, has like 7.3 million followers. So there is a currency for Adam Schefter tweeting out, ‘Hey, this agent or that agent.’ We might not think about it in our normal daily lives.
“Adam Schefter might not have been having an inappropriate relationship with an individual for some news, but Schefter is for sure exchanging something to get his inside source.”
Acho’s claims, however, are just that: claims.
The former NFL linebacker then brought the conversation back to Russini, saying, “I’m not surprised by the finding. I do, to some degree, hate this for the parties involved because it never should have gotten to this. But Russini is the one who added the gasoline to all this.”
For his part, Vrabel chose to steer clear of The Athletic’s findings and said he had nothing to add to the latest turn in the scandal.
