NFL writer Dianna Russini has abruptly resigned from The Athletic just days after her boss began investigating pix of her hugging Pats coach Mike Vrabel that hit the NY Post gossip pages.
The two, both married, were seen at an Arizona resort embracing on a hotel rooftop and in a hot tub but deny having an affair.
The Post last week published the photos of Russini and Vrabel at a romantic hotel where they claim they were never alone.
In quitting, Russini claimed she refuses to let the speculation over the photos “define my career.”
If her interaction with Vrabel were innocent, one would surmise she would defend her name to the end. But she caved.
Speculation on the internet was that she may have had no choice – resign or be fired by the NYT-run sports journal.
The outlet had suspended Russini pending an investigation that her boss Steven Ginsburg said had “raised new questions,” but she pulled the plug on her own before it was completed.
In a resignation letter she blamed her ouster on “self-feeding speculation unmoored from the facts.”
“I decided to step aside because I refuse to lend it further oxygen,” she added.
Outkick founder Clay Travis summarized why he believes she was dead in the water after the pictures came out.
“Sports reporters can’t bang the coaches they report on,” Travis tweeted. “Coaches can bang reporters because their job is to win games. This isn’t complicated or a double standard.”
There is a larger issue of reporters sleeping with sources that no one talks about, impact because both the reporters and the sources are discreet enough not to be seen in hot tubs.