After months on the sidelines, Dianna Russini is ready to get back in the game!
Seven months after photographs of the former NFL reporter alongside New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel sparked controversy, the 43-year-old sports journo is breaking her silence.
In a new interview with People, the mother-of-two reflected on the scandal surrounding her and Mike, describing the experience as deeply painful:
“The best way to describe what the last six months were like for me is heartbreaking. At the beginning of this, it was a nightmare.”
Fans will recall, the viral storm ultimately led to cheating rumors, as both she and Mike are married to other people. In April, under the weight of national attention, she submitted her resignation from The Athletic, where she had worked as a prominent NFL insider for nearly three years.
Dianna and Mike have both denied the affair allegations.
In her interview with People, Diana explains how she, her husband Kevin Goldschmidt, and the rest of her family had no choice but to completely unplug and distance themselves from the constant public scrutiny.
“The lies became so out of control. This was a runaway train, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Once we realized nothing was going to stop this, it became unhealthy for us to read it because it wasn’t helping us heal. It was piling on and adding to what we were already dealing with.”
Her husband has completely stood by her side and continues to support her.
Related: Mike Vrabel Opens Up About His Wife Amid Scandal
Despite the personal toll, she says the encouragement she received from people throughout the NFL helped her envision a future back in sports journalism. She credits players, coaches, executives and other football figures with staying in contact during her time away and encouraging her to return.
“The absolute best part of this situation has been the loyalty the NFL has shown me. They checked in with me almost daily while I wasn’t working to make sure that I was staying connected to football, to check on me as a person and to just see how I was doing.”
She continued, noting how meaningful it all became to her:
“I felt like players were texting and calling me to say, ‘Get back to work, it’s time.’ I think it’s pretty poetic that here I was all these years telling the story about these players going through adversity, and then they became sort of the people that I was learning from during this.”
It’s this “motivation,” she finds, that’s helping her step back on the field and start her next chapter with The Russini Report. The magazine describes it as a one-hour show set to stream on BetUS TV’s website starting this Wednesday. It’ll also be available on X (Twitter).
Check out a preview (below):
Seeing as how all the players she covered before supported her through the scandal, she says getting back to work isn’t something she’s afraid of anymore:
“I’m not scared to get back in because I know the people that I cover are welcoming me back with open arms.”
According to ESPN, Super Bowl champion coach Bill Parcells and radio personality Damon Amendolara will be her first guests. The Russini Report will also feature an accompanied column on BetUS’ website.
No comeback would be complete without a podcast addition, so, yes, she’ll also be joining Jon ‘Stugotz’ Weiner‘s Nobody’s Safe podcast with contributor status.
Looking back, she says:
“I would not wish that experience on any person ever. But through it, I did get an opportunity to not just learn about myself, but my family and our priorities, and maybe some decisions and things I was doing in my career, and putting it before what I really wanted most, which was to be a mom. And while it was so hard at first, feeling their love and support helped me believe that, ‘Wait, I know I can go back to doing this. I know that they’re settled. I know that we’re a unit, and no one is going to come between us. Nothing’s going to break us.’”
Click here to read the full report.
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