The New York Times’ piece about Dianna Russini has rehashed the NFL’s biggest controversy that has refused to die down during the offseason. Fans and analysts latched onto the revelation that Russini used her insider status to get out of a ticket when she called up an NFL coach to mollify the officer who had stopped her for texting while driving.
Mike Florio Addresses Dianna Russini’s Traffic Stop Incident
During Friday’s segment of the “Pro Football Talk” show, Mike Florio speculated about which head coach helped to get Russini out of a driving ticket earlier this year.
“It’s a question we all wanna know the answer to,” Florio said. “Who is it that Dianna Russini had a sufficiently strong relationship with that she was able to press the FaceTime button on her phone for that coach’s number, get him on the line, and get him to talk to a cop and ultimately persuade the cop not to give her a ticket for texting while driving.”
“The incident happened on the morning of January 19, that’s the day when Sean McDermott was fired by the Bills. That’s what she was trying to break while she was driving,” he added. “So, at the time, there were nine head coaching vacancies. So, there were only 23 coaches that could have been called, and the report says that Mike Vrabel isn’t the coach who was called; it was somebody else.”
“I got the list of the 22, and I don’t know who it was, but I know it was one of them,” Florio continued. “I mean, there is a chance that it was just a bit that she was doing that it didn’t actually happen. She just thought it would be a funny story to tell, which is kind of strange if that’s the case.”
Florio’s list included these head coaches:
- Aaron Glenn
- Zac Taylor
- Shane Steichen
- DeMeco Ryans
- Liam Coen
- Andy Reid
- Jim Harbaugh
- Sean Payton
- Brian Schottenheimer
- Dan Quinn
- Nick Sirianni
- John Harbaugh
- Kevin O’Connell
- Dan Campbell
- Matt LaFleur
- Ben Johnson
- Todd Bowles
- Kellen Moore
- Dave Canales
- Kyle Shanahan
- Mike Macdonald
- Sean McVay
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Florio also mentioned that McDermott was fired around 9:00 a.m. Eastern, which is why it’s possible that a head coach on the West Coast wasn’t the one Russini FaceTimed.
The Athletic’s executive editor, Steven Ginsberg, announced in April that the outlet was conducting an internal investigation into Russini’s journalistic conduct, but over two months later, no date for its conclusion has been announced.
Staff at The Athletic are reportedly disgruntled by the lengthy investigation into the NFL insider, who earned a mammoth $800,000 annual salary and whose expiring contract was on the verge of renewal.
Florio further predicted that Russini’s recollection of her traffic incident will be one of the pillars of The Athletic’s ongoing investigation into her conduct.
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“The two big takeaways as it relates to the New York Times article, even though there were more important, nuanced issues buried in there, were the information about her salary and the fact that they were negotiating an extension and the whole story about the ticket,” Florio said.
“‘Cause it opens with that, and then later there’s a comment made that the conduct was viewed as unacceptable by The Athletic and The New York Times. So, I suspect that incident is gonna be reiterated in the internal investigation report.”
Alongside the traffic stop incident, several analysts have called for the NFL to investigate whether Russini and Vrabel had colluded over the years to help the New England Patriots’ head coach secure favorable terms for players from their teams, for example, A.J. Brown’s trade to the Patriots, and Julio Jones’ trade to the Tennessee Titans in 2021.
