Dianna Russini explains how ‘nerve’ sets insiders apart from other reporters

You don’t have to tell Dianna Russini twice; she knows that being an insider isn’t glamorous.

Adam Schefter broke a story after having sex, Jon Rothstein’s wife was in labor and Russini herself almost had an NFL scoop derailed by her child’s untimely tummy trouble. These moments come with the territory of being an insider, as does being asked, “Where’s the strangest place you’ve broken a story?”

Russini’s been asked that once or twice, but that’s not what Suzy Shuster and Amy Trask were asking on their What the Football podcast. They honed in on how the insider life can be “really tough” and were looking for Russini to give them a behind-the-scenes look as she seemingly checked her phone to see if she had any scoops.

“I don’t think there’s one way — I do it every day,” she explained. “I think I started off as just a normal news reporter, and I used to always talk to the police officers and the fireman at the scene, to just find out what was happening. And, I realized pretty quickly that I liked knowing more than anybody else in the moment. And so then when I switched to sports, I just took that same skillset I learned via news reporter and just applied it to football… I went a couple different paths, but I eventually ended up in the NFL.”

News is really what got Russini to being The Athletic’s lead NFL insider and what separated her from the rest.

“It’s what separated me from some others to really give me some opportunity when I was at ESPN,” she says. “But, it’s really a relationship-based position I’m in. It’s all relationship. It’s investing time. A lot of time with people in the league, decision-makers, players, agents, getting to know them past just ‘Hello. What’s up? I need something.’ And getting older stinks, especially as a woman, but one thing I value so much now is your experience and the time I’ve put into so much of this becomes fruitful as I’m getting older.

“I met Saquon [Barkley] at his Pro Day years ago, and we always stayed in touch. And I started a podcast this year [Scoop City] at The Athletic, and I was nervous about it all going down; I didn’t know how I was going to get interviews, so I just texted him. I’m like, ‘Would you come on my podcast?’ And he’s like, ‘Of course I will.’ And I don’t have that if I never stayed in touch with him all these years and always kept that relationship really good.”

But she’s also made mistakes along the way. Russini notes that she’s had “problems” with many general managers and coaches in the league, who either don’t like the way she reports or don’t want that said stuff out there.

“Mike Silver said this to me years ago, ‘There’s only certain people that can do this,'” Russini said. “And the quality I think that separates insiders from the other reporters, who do a great job as well, but the thing that separates them is nerve. You have to have the nerve to sit in some stuff and to put out information you know most people don’t want out, or they want to put it out themselves, or they want to represent it a certain way.

“And I think, naturally, I have that, which is helpful, but it comes with a lot of stress — and I got two little boys at home, too. The juggling act is really hard. I can’t tell you guys how many times I’m strapping Mikey and Joey in their car seat(s), and news is breaking. It’s clockwork. It’s going to happen today. I don’t know what it is about those car seats, and obviously, I have to make a decision in that moment. They’re rambunctious, so they want to jump out. I gotta lock them in before I grab my phone.”

Fortunately, over the years, Russini has had contacts in the NFL, who she says have been so supportive of her juggling insiderdom with being a mother.

“I get calls from people. The boys are screaming in the background. It’s mortifying,” she says. “I’m always so embarrassed by it. And there’s nothing when a man on the other side of the call goes, ‘Hey, I don’t care about the crying; keep talking,’ or ‘I’m here, don’t worry,’ or ‘Do you want to call me back? No worries. I’ve got kids, too.’ That was the most surprising thing to me, by the way, when I became a mom, is how accepting and incredibly understanding football has been about it.”