Being in the Northeast, Dianna Russini has acquainted herself with miserable sports fans, particularly those in the NFL.
She’s had run-ins with fans while on the job at ESPN and now as a senior NFL insider at The Athletic, mainly fans of the Jets. Russini has maintained that Gang Green fans are in a state of denial while insisting she has no personal vendetta against the team or Aaron Rodgers, for that matter.
But she does have a personal vendetta against a Philadelphia Eagles fan — one that resides within the confines of her own household. During an appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Monday, the veteran NFL reporter took her own husband to task for how he reacts when the Birds lose. The Eagles lost in crushing fashion on Monday night, falling 22-21 in their home opener to Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons.
At this point, it hadn’t been even 24 hours yet, and she was already tired of hearing about it.
“Grow up. You’re a father. I don’t want our children having a culture where mommy and daddy’s tone in this house is based on the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s so stupid.” – @DMRussini shreds her husband for moping around the house after Eagles’ losses. 😂😂
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) September 17, 2024
“I don’t even like to go to Philly after a loss, and I have nothing to do with it,” she says. “Yeah, I just don’t even want to be around these people. Just this morning, my husband said two words to me — he’s an Eagles fan — and I’m like, this can’t be a thing. I don’t want to be a household that’s shaped by the result of a football game. Grow up; you’re a father. I don’t want our children having a culture where ‘Mommy and daddy’s tone in this house is based on the result of the Philadelphia Eagles.’
“Who cares? It’s so stupid…I bring it up all the time. I say, ‘I don’t care about the wins and losses. All this house should be focused on is how to give me the ability to do my job at a better level.’ I’ve asked him to quit. I don’t care about your job. I don’t care about your career goals. I don’t care that you work 50 hours a day and that you have contributed, really; he gives everything to the company — he works for Shake Shack. He does so much for this company. I wanted him to quit, but he won’t do it because something about ‘personal growth’ or something.”
While we know that Russini is being tongue-in-cheek here, there’s some personal ambition about being the breadwinner in her household, especially when it comes to being one of the biggest newsbreakers in the sport. We don’t exactly know where her allegiances lie regarding NFL fandom, but she’s apparently past that point, as wins and losses mean nothing to her.
Coaches losing their jobs and roster moves aren’t all the rave, but they keep the lights on in the Russini household. She’s carved out quite the role for herself as one of the foremost NFL newsbreakers in the space, and even then, there seems to be a level of competition going down in her household — and we’re not even talking about the Eagles here.
Dan Le Batard quipped that he’d love to see the fights between Russini and her husband, arguing that they were probably “cartoonish” in nature. Jon “Stugotz” Weiner made the point that The Athletic NFL insider almost certainly ends every argument with a W.
“We laugh a lot in this house because if we don’t, we’re gonna get a divorce,” Russini continues. “There’s so much pressure in here — and I say in here because I’m in it right now — because it’s created by me; he’s tremendous at lazy river-ing my personality. He learned early, probably talking to my dad, ‘Just let it go; just don’t react to her. She’s gonna have meltdowns and scream and yell.’ But, it’s give and take, and I probably have to do a better job of giving, but I gotta break stories.”
Well, then.