‘Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini Just One of Many NFL Sex Secrets’
NFL reporter Chrissy Froyd, canned for criticizing Dianna Russini over her steamy photos with Pats coach Mike Vrabel, says she was among the first to know about the affair.
Froyd just wrote a column for The Daily Mail saying she had heard Russini was sleeping with Vrabel for five years.
The vanquished Froyd also revealed Russini is just a smattering – that she knows many female reporters who’ve had sex with NFL personnel.
“Around 2020, I was told by a well-known national sports reporter in explicit terms that Vrabel, then coach of the Tennessee Titans, and Russini were carrying on a secret relationship,” Froyd writes. “It was one of the first rumors that I heard when I began my career.”
“I’ve also been told by at least half a dozen female reporters that they have had sex with NFL staff and, in one case, a prominent NFL head coach, while they were covering the team,” she added. “It takes a high degree of trust to make such a confession, so I assume that many other similar stories go untold.”
“Gossip about these illicit reporter-NFL employee relationships is even more prominent,” Froyd says. “Over my career the number of stories has numbered in the tens – and they have involved some of the most prominent female sports reporters and NFL coaches in the country.”
Froyd was critical of Patriots journalists who appeared to dance around questioning the married Vrabel having a relationship with the also-married Russini.
But Froyd explained she understands why journalists are hesitant to ask too many questions.
“The NFL controls who receives access to press conferences, games and other major events,” says Heavy.com. “Ask the wrong question, and the league can prevent a writer from having the ability to cover a team.”
In the worst-case scenario, a writer can lose her job, as Froyd did last month.
“Froyd’s op-ed in the Daily Mail sent shock waves throughout the NFL on Saturday,” podcaster Tony Farmer said on X.
Meanwhile, Karen Guregian of MassLive says Vrabel isn’t out of the woods yet – that his future with the Patriots is still not assured.
“I can only tell you I’m going to be there today,” Guregian quoted Vrabel from last week’s news conference. “I can’t tell you anything other than I’m going to be out there today.”
