Dianna Russini out of job 5 months after 'pissing off' Steve Sarkisian

NFL reporter Dianna Russini has resigned from her position at The Athletic, one week after pictures of her with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel at a posh Arizona resort were published by the New York Post. Russini is famous with Longhorns fans after drawing the most angry response to a story from Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian of his career.

The photos, published by The Post on April 7, show Vrabel and Russini in bathing suits poolside hugging on a rooftop at the Ambiente in Sedona, Arizona. The NFL's annual league meetings were a few days later in Phoenix. Both Vrabel, 50, and Russini, 43, are married to other people with whom they have children.

"These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable," Vrabel told the Post, which published the photos, in a statement last week. This doesn’t deserve any further response."

After the photos came out, the Athletic backed Russini initially. The Athletic's executive editor, Steven Ginsberg

"These photos are misleading and lack essential context," Ginsberg said at the time. "These were public interactions in front of many people. Dianna is a premier journalist covering the NFL and we’re proud to have her at The Athletic."

But as more details came out and Russini failed to provide proof of her version of events, that she was on a girls hiking trip and innocently ran into Vrabel who was staying at the same resort, the Athletic started to have a change of heart. In a letter sent to staffers of The Athletic on Tuesday following Russini's resignation, Ginsberg expressed that new issues had arisen during the course of the investigation into her conduct.

"While I can't share the details of our investigation into Dianna's conduct, I want to emphasize that the leadership of The Athletic has taken this matter seriously from the moment that we learned about it," he said. "When this situation was brought to our attention last week, there were clear concerns, but we received a detailed explanation and it was our instinct to support and defend a colleague while we continued to review the matter. As additional information emerged, new questions were raised that became part of our investigation."

Most Longhorns fans truly learned who Dianna Russini was in October when she reported Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was actively looking for an NFL head coaching job.

“I’m told that representatives for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian have let NFL decision makers know that he would be interested in potential head coaching openings, including the Titans,” Dianna Russini reported on X.

Russini's report came at one of the lowest points of the Texas season. The Longhorns had lost to Florida and struggled to Kentucky. The report came out the morning of the Mississippi State game. And it was in the heart of recruiting.

Many times coaches (or their agents) don't mind rumors swirling about them. But Sarkisian's response was quick, unusual and adamant.

First, Sark's agents Jimmy Sexton and Ed Marynowitz responded during the Mississippi State game. The duo are the biggest agents in the college coaching world. Both work for Creative Artists Agency, one of the largest agencies in the world. CAA put out a statement strongly refuting the report from the Athletic. Again, it is rare for an agent to publicly refute a report and to do it during a game.

"Any reports regarding communications on coaching opportunities with NFL teams are patently false and wildly inaccurate. Sark is solely focused on coaching the University of Texas football team," Sexton and Marynowitx said in a statement.

After Texas' heart-stopping overtime win over the Bulldogs, a visibly upset Sarkisian took to the mic and took aim at Russini.

“It really pisses me off that one person can make a report that in turn, the entire media, sports world runs with as factual," Sark said. "To the point of my agency and my agents have to put a statement out that they have never have done. Historically, CAA, Jimmy Sexton and Ed Marynowitz have never done that. But I had to do that to protect my locker room and my team. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.

"I thought it was completely unprofessional of that person to put that report out, and the fact that everybody ran with it is borderline embarrassing for the media. I respect what you guys do, I really do, and everybody else, but the fact that everybody ran that as truth is really embarrassing. I’ve got a small circle when I make decisions on what I do and what I don’t do, and nobody would speak on my behalf without me knowing. And so where that report came from, I’d love to talk to that person.”

Russini appeared on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and basically laughed off Sark and his agents denials. She even sort of mocked the reason behind the denials as almost self-serving.

"No, it's horrible! When you're the head coach at Texas and you've got recruits visiting and its game day and you got NIL and just all the weird landscape of college now that goes with this. ... In 2025, there are just so many different factors ... with the portal and players wanting to maybe leave if they don't trust that their coach is going to be there. There's a lot of layers." - Athletic reporter Dianna Russini on Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

The story soon went away. The Athletic never commented on the story about Sarkisian. Five months later, Sarkisian has assembled, what on paper should be, his most talented team in his tenure at Texas and Russini is trying to pick up the pieces of her career and relationships.

This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Dianna Russini out at Athletic months after angering Texas' Sarkisian