When Mike Vrabel announced he would enter counseling on Day 3 of the NFL Draft, it sent shockwaves through the football world. And the announcement’s abrupt timing and surprise led to speculation that a new bombshell report was about to drop on his relationship with Dianna Russini.
That speculation indeed proved true.
On Thursday afternoon, the New York Post published photographs showing Vrabel and Russini kissing at a bar years before they were captured at the Sedona resort earlier this winter. In fact, the Post dates the photos to March 2020 while Vrabel was still head coach of the Tennessee Titans and Russini was an NFL insider at ESPN.
At the time, Vrabel was married, while Russini would tie the knot with her husband six months later.
According to the Post, the pair were spotted being very intimate with one another during their visit, in which they were largely left alone by fellow patrons, unaware of their identity. Vrabel can be seen standing up to kiss Russini at the bar in multiple pictures.
Dianna Russini and married Mike Vrabel caught kissing at NYC bar in bombshell new photos — taken 6 years before scandal https://t.co/WIPOoGKAWF pic.twitter.com/4j1UpviNuy
— New York Post (@nypost) April 23, 2026
In the original photo release just over a week ago, Vrabel and Russini were captured together on top of a rooftop bungalow and poolside at an Arizona resort. The pair initially denied that anything untoward had occurred in their relationship and that they were there with a group of friends. However, their story quickly fell apart.
Russini resigned from The Athletic after they launched a full investigation into her conduct. Earlier this week, Vrabel finally addressed the situation, saying he had to have difficult conversations with his family and players. Then came the shocking announcement about his counseling.
The suddenness of Vrabel’s public turn and the intensity of the Patriots’ PR campaign came as a surprise this week, given the stern denials from both himself and Russini and the fact that she had remained defiant in her only statement on the matter. But the Post said it contacted both him and Russini on Wednesday afternoon about the new photos, which is now readily apparent why he tried to race ahead of this story and the confusing nature of skipping the third day of the NFL Draft.
The fact that these photos, released six years ago, appear to show them kissing suggests a relationship that went well beyond football and lasted for some time. As the story of Russini and Vrabel’s retreat initially blew up, keen-eyed observers noticed a pattern of Russini’s close professional relationship with Vrabel, and reports from both Tennessee and New England existed for years.
Even though neither person has actually stepped up to say that they were engaged in a personal relationship outside of football, the series of pictures of Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel from 2026 and now 2020 tells the story for them.
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