Reporter Dianna Russini previously joked about having boyfriends with her husband, Kevin Goldschmidt, nearly six years before she was spotted with Mike Vrabel.
“I tossed and turned all night and I finally decided: The Washington Football team is going to stun the Seattle Seahawks and win 5 in a row,” Russini, 43, wrote via X in December 2020.
A social media user replied in a since-deleted tweet, “You need a boyfriend lol.”
“I tell my husband that all the time,” Russini responded at the time.
NFL reporter Russini married Goldschmidt in 2020, before the couple welcomed sons Micheal and Joey in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
Russini raised eyebrows on Tuesday, April 7, after she was spotted holding hands with New England Patriots head coach Vrabel, 50, weeks earlier at a resort in Arizona. (Mike has been married to Jen Vrabel since 1999.)
Mike and Russini both addressed the photos, downplaying any potential romantic connection.
“These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable,” Mike said in a statement. “This doesn’t deserve any further response.”
Russini, for her part, acknowledged that the photos did not capture the nature of their alleged gathering.
“The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day,” she said in a separate statement. “Like most journalists in the NFL, reporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.”
Russini covers the NFL for The Athletic, with her employer standing in her corner amid the photo scandal.
“These were public interactions in front of many people,” The Athletic’s executive editor, Steven Ginsberg, said in a Tuesday statement. “Dianna is a premier journalist covering the NFL and we’re proud to have her at The Athletic.”
While neither Mike nor Russini have further addressed the resort meet-up, the sports journalist has frequently been candid about her marriage.
“I think we all do weird things when we’re in love,” Russini said on a 2021 episode of ESPN’s Get Up show, when discussing Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ engagement to now-ex Shailene Woodley. “We overshare and overpost. Look, he’s getting married to a beautiful actress. I’m married to someone average. I don’t post a lot about him. If I was married to someone beautiful, I’d overpost too.”
Russini’s Get Up cohost Mike Greenberg further joked that her comment didn’t “seem nice” to Goldschmidt.
“We’re average together, [and] you know what the worst part is?” she continued at the time. “He sent me a text during that segment — not watching, because he actually works for a living — and he said, ‘Good luck day. Be great on Get Up.’ The guy’s got a heart of gold. Here I am on national TV killing him.”
Russini added, “I am so sorry, I need to really stop killing my husband on television. We’re going to be divorced by Christmas.”
Russini and Goldschmidt have yet to get divorced, celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary last year.
“Happy Anniversary to my own parents’ favorite person … and mine too ❤️,” she wrote via Instagram in September 2025.
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