Dianna Russini’s sports media return will not be at Barstool
· Yahoo Sports
In July, Dave Portnoy said it would be a “no-brainer” for Barstool Sports to hire Dianna Russini if she returned to sports media.
However, it doesn’t sound like that’s where the embattled former The Athletic and ESPN reporter has landed.
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Russini will make her long-awaited return to the sports media world next week, according to a report by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. The former top NFL insider for The Athletic, who became embroiled in scandal this offseason after numerous photos surfaced showing her cozy and seemingly intimate relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, “has begun getting the word out to people in the league that she’ll be returning to work ‘next week.”
Florio didn’t have any details on which outlet she might be working with and what her new role would entail.
That’s led to plenty of speculation about Russini’s plans. Some have presumed she’s starting a podcast or Substack newsletter. Others have wondered whether she’ll try to stay in journalism despite the uphill reputational climb. And perhaps she’s aligning herself with a gambling brand or prediction market, as so many sports-centric figures have been recently.
One outlet that was top of mind for a lot of people was Barstool; as Portnoy said in July, it would be a “no-brainer, if she wanted to work here, we’d do it.”
“An affair is not like a murder. It’s bad, but I’m not in the family. She’ll land somewhere, and you know, if people who have affairs are never allowed to work again in this country, you’re gonna lose a significant amount of the workforce,” Portnoy said. “It is obviously really sad, but at the same time, that’s not like a capital offense that should end somebody’s professional career.”
That followed comments in April by Barstool’s Dan “Big Cat” Katz, who said he wasn’t sure she’d want to work at Barstool, given some of the jokes the site had made about her situation.
According to Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel, wherever Russini is landing, it’s not Barstool.
A few months ago @stoolpresidente said he would consider hiring Dianna Russini at Barstool.
Nevertheless, he tells @fos that Barstool is not her apparent looming destination.
— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) November 5, 2026
Barstool always did seem like a strange potential fit for Russini, despite her friendly relationship with Pardon My Take. That’s especially true if she wants to try to move away from the salaciousness of the controversy that ended her time as an NFL insider.
Russini resigned from The Athletic in April, one week after the New York Post published the first batch of photos showing her and Vrabel together at a secluded luxury resort in Arizona. In her resignation letter, Russini maintained that there was no foul play between her and Vrabel.
Last month, the New York Post reported that Russini had hired crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, one of the first signs that the veteran NFL reporter was eyeing a return to media. Russini has not made any public statements since her April resignation.
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